Naruto: Awakened beginning
by Nax Oll
Summary: What if Naruto met the Kyuubi before becoming a ninja and developed a special ability because of an attack? Alternate story line. Helpful Kurama. Harem in later chapters. On hold.
1. Chapter 1

**Open**

" **Wake up."**

Naruto suddenly woke up when he heard that voice. As he sat up, he looked around and found that he was in a hospital when he saw the white walls and sparkling floor.

"You've finally woken up." Naruto looked to his left and found a nurse sitting next to him. "Wait here, I will call the doctor." She went away and Naruto was left by himself.

" _What happened last night?"_ he thought. _"Let's see. I was walking home after eating at Ichiraku's when some people suddenly started chasing me. I hid in a dark alley and they ran past me. They didn't find me, so why am I in a hospital bed? I didn't get injured. At least, I don't remember..."_

The doctor had arrived, but he didn't come alone – the Sandaime Hokage had come with him. Naruto smiled. "Ojisan!"

The doctor frowned. "Irrespectable brat," he muttered, but only loud enough for the Hokage to hear.

"Leave us after you finish checking him, doctor," the Hokage said, frowning himself. The doctor did some quick checks, and after seeing that Naruto was in a stable condition, left. The two were silent for a while.

"What's wrong, Ojisan?" Naruto asked. Hiruzen sighed. He had no idea of where to start.

"Naruto, what do you remember of yesterday?" he asked.

"Well, I had just had some ramen when some geezers started chasing me. I ran off and hid from them. I can't remember anything else. But they didn't get me, right?"

"Wrong," Hiruzen said. Naruto's eyes widened. "They must have sneaked up behind you, because when the Anbu found you, you had a massive wound starting on the back of your neck and ending on the lower part of your back. In fact, the injury was so serious that it will leave a permanent scar. The doctors are surprised that you even managed to survive, let alone be fully healed in one night."

"But if it's as serious as you are saying, why didn't I die?" Naruto asked. Hiruzen's eyes flashed with hesitation. Although it was very short, Naruto saw it and realized that he was hiding something from Naruto. "Hey! You're hiding something! Tell me!"

"Sorry Naruto, this is one of the few things I can't tell you," he replied.

"Grr! If you don't tell me I'll prank the whole village!" Hiruzen's eyes twitched. He was tempted to tell Naruto when Naruto threatened to prank the village, but that wasn't enough to make him spill the beans. He shook his head and smiled.

"Sorry Naruto, I came to check if you were okay, but I must go to a meeting now. Goodbye!" He quickly walked out before Naruto tried to force him to tell him the secret.

Naruto was annoyed. _"What the hell? He can't tell me why I survived? What kind of bullshit is that?"_ The doctor walked in again.

"You will have to wait here for a while so that we can run some tests on you. You'd better not leave the bed."

"Yeah yeah, whatever," Naruto said. _"What the hell? What kind of doctor says that to the patient? Anyway, there's no way I'm staying here. I know, I'll prank that stupid doctor!"_ Naruto had a devilish smile as he slid off his bed. He was about to get out of his room when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Wha-" he turned around and saw an Anbu member holding his shoulder.

"The Sandaime Hokage instructed me to keep you in this room until the hospital discharges you," he said, displaying no emotion.

"What the hell? Grr!" Naruto shouted. "Fine, whatever." He decided to go to sleep.

Suddenly, he found himself in a large area with no walls. Mist slightly obscured his view and he could see huge bars in front of him.

"What the hell? Where am I?" he asked. He walked up to the bars to see if there was anything on the other side, but he couldn't see anything. "What's the point of this?" he asked. Suddenly, he felt a massive presence on the other side. His eyes widened as he began retreating, but he tripped and fell over.

" **You sure do ask lots of questions, brat."**

"Who was that? Who is there?" Naruto shouted in panic.

" **Two more questions."** The voice finally got to the bars, and Naruto saw who was talking. It was a giant fox. Naruto would have made a joke about foxes if he wasn't paralyzed by the huge amount of chakra he was detecting. "He finally brought himself to speak.

"Who are you?"

" **Brat, I wouldn't have talked to you if it wasn't for the attack that happened yesterday."**

"You still haven't answered my question..." Naruto said slowly.

" **SILENCE, BRAT! I was about to get to that part. I am the Kyuubi, and I have been sealed into you by the Fourth Hokage, your father."**

That single sentence left Naruto so shocked, his legs failed him. He couldn't even make a noise as he began processing the overload of information. Meanwhile, the Kyuubi was getting more and more annoyed at the boy's silence. Finally, he could take it no more.

" **Hey, brat. Speak."**

"...What can I even say..." for once, Naruto was lost for words. Finally, he asked the Kyuubi something: "Why did you tell me all that now?"

" **... Because you asked me..."**

"No, I mean why are you telling me this now? You could have told me this ages ago!"

" **BASTARD! DON'T TELL ME WHAT I CAN AND CAN'T DO! JUST BECAUSE I'M TELLING YOU THIS DOESN'T MEAN I DON'T HATE YOU!"**

"What! Why do you hate me? I haven't done anything to you!"

" **BEING MY CONTAINER IS ENOUGH! I DETEST ALL HUMANS! THEY ARE ALL SELFISH CREATURES, AND IF ANY GOT THEIIR HANDS ON ME THEY WOULD ONLY USE ME FOR MY POWERS!"**

"Well how do you know that I will!"

" **BECAUSE ALL HUMANS ARE THE SAME!"**

"...Was my dad the same?"

At this, the Kyuubi stopped. While it was true that his dad was a little different, there was no way he was going to admit that.

" _ **But what if... maybe... this boy..."**_ the Kyuubi thought to himself.

" **Well anyway, I didn't bring you here to argue with me. I wanted to tell you that the attack did more damage than you think. The attack actually involved a sword and a blunt object – probably a hammer. The hammer rearranged your brain and damaged large parts of it while the sword somehow managed to take some parts of your brain out."**

"What! So you're saying that I've got a smaller brain now?" Naruto shouted. He didn't like to admit it, but he wasn't that clever. Losing some of his brain would make school even harder than it already was.

" **Not exactly."**

"Then what?"

" **I managed to fully heal your brain, but since I can't remember exactly what it was like, and we've got some missing pieces, I changed your brain a bit. I won't bore you with the details, but basically, you now have full control over your body."**

Naruto face palmed. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

" **Grrr! Fine, I'll give you one example. Before, you couldn't control your cell growth, right? But now, you can if you focus."**

"Woah! You mean I can make myself taller!" Naruto had stars in his eyes.

The Kyuubi rolled his eyes. **"Of course you would think of that."**

"Hey! Anyway, is that what you wanted to say?"

" **Pretty much."**

"Okay, so what can I call you? I don't wanna keep calling you Kyuubi."

" **Hmph. Why should I tell you, a mere mortal, my name?"**

"Because you know my name? Duh. Also, I need tips on this brain thing."

" **Grrr! Fine. It's Kurama."**

"How can I get to this place again?"

" **Just close your eyes and imagine this place. Anyway, it's time for you to go."**

"Okay, see ya!"

" **BASTARD! We're not on friendly terms yet!"** But it was too late, Naruto was already gone.

Naruto opened his eyes and saw the same doctor.

"So you're awake? After we finish these checks you'll be discharged from the hospital," he said.

20 minutes later, Naruto was at his house, having been discharged.

"Alright! Time to see what I can do!"


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own Naruto.

 **Your**

Naruto woke up the following day (AN: sorry skipped out him trying out his power because I want to keep it as a surprise). Today was a big day – the graduation exam. Since becoming the Hokage was his dream, he had to become a ninja first, so there was no way he was going to fail this test. Besides, he had a new trick he wanted to try out.

After getting ready, he went out and started jogging to the school. When he got there, most of the people were already there - including Sasuke. Just seeing Sasuke made Naruto irritated. _"Why the hell does he get the attention of all the girls?"_

He decided to try and provoke him. He was about to shout an insult when he heard a booming voice in his head: **"DON'T YOU DARE! I've put up with it till now because I didn't want to talk to you, but now that I have talked to you, I am going to tell you this: I will not have my container going around insulting everyone! It brings shame to me!"**

" _But he's a douche bag! Why can't I just say one thing?"_

" **Because otherwise, I won't teach you anything."**

Naruto huffed and just walked past Sasuke. Sasuke raised his eyebrows when he saw that Naruto didn't say anything, but decided to go back to brooding.

Naruto spent the rest of his time daydreaming about Sakura. However, his daydreams were cut short by the same voice.

" **Seriously? You still can't get over that girl? Can't you see that she doesn't like you?"**

Hearing these words from someone other than Sakura herself shocked Naruto as he was forced to realize something – she didn't like him.

" **Yeah, that's right. Not only that, there is also another girl who has a crush on you."**

Hearing this, Naruto's eyes widened in disbelief. _"WHAT! No way. There's no way someone likes me."_

" **Not only that, she is also in this class."**

Naruto practically fell off his seat, and he began frantically searching the class. There was Ino... no, she liked Sasuke, there was Hinata... no, she was scared of him... who could it be?

He stopped his search when Iruka came in.

"Settle down, class! As you all know, today is the graduation test day. When your name is called, please make your way to the classroom next door, where you will be tested on your... Bunshin!"

Naruto groaned – it was the only one that he couldn't do. _"But I can't fail here! I'm going to become Hokage after all."_

A few minutes later, Naruto's name was called.

" _This is it!"_ he thought. _"There's no way I'm failing here! Let's do this!"_

He walked into the classroom with his heart beating at an insane speed. There, he saw Iruka and Mizuki sitting and holding some papers.

"Naruto," Iruka said, "to pass you must perform the Bunshin. Are you ready?"

"Hai! There's no way I'm going to fail!" Naruto shouted to pump himself up. _"Let's do this!"_

Naruto did the hand signs for the jutsu and shouted: "Bunshin no jutsu!"

...

But nothing happened.

" _SHIT! Why can't I do it! I don't want to fail here!"_ Naruto's heart began pounding at an incredible speed.

"Naruto! Looks like you fail again!" Iruka shouted. "Maybe if you had actually trained you would have passed!"

" _I... failed? No..."_

" **Tch. Calm down. Now is the time for you to use that trick."**

" _Will it work?"_

" **Just believe in yourself! We've already practised. But you'd better be ready, because it will take loads of energy – I won't be surprised if you faint."**

" _But I didn't faint last time!"_

" **Well last time I could give you as much chakra as you needed, but now because those ninja's are here I must hide my presence. In any case, you'd better not fail!"**

" _Alright! Let's do this!"_

"Sensei, please give me one more chance!" Naruto began to beg.

"NO! You've already failed!" Iruka shouted.

"Don't be so harsh, Iruka," Mizuki smiled kindly. "Let him have one more turn."

"Yay! I won't disappoint you!" Naruto shouted. _"Let's do this!"_

Naruto had practised this before (well, last night) but he was sweating buckets.

 **Iruka's point of view**

" _Can he really do it this time? I really do hope so, but I don't think so..."_

Suddenly, his vision was filled with smoke.

"What!" he shouted. Mizuki was equally shocked. When the smoke cleared, they saw two Narutos.

" _What! He did it!"_ Iruka thought. "Congratulations, Naruto! You passed!"

"YES! Told you I wouldn't disappoint you!" Naruto was extremely happy. He had passed!

 **Normal point of view**

Naruto smirked to himself as he walked out. He hadn't actually done the Bunshin technique – he had done something else that Kurama had shown him last night. Cloning.

 _Flashback_

" **Hey, brat. Tomorrow you've got the test, and if you have to do Bunshin then you're screwed."**

" _But what else can I do?"_

" **Since you have control over all the cells in your body, you can do what you want with them."**

" _So?"_

" **So you can split yourself in two by mass producing the cells that make up your body."**

" _What! But how do I do that?"_

" **Since you already control your whole body, if you just focus then it should come naturally."**

Naruto couldn't believe that he could just naturally do something that overpowered, but he closed his eyes and began to focus anyway.

" **By the way, this will take loads of energy, so I will be giving you some of my chakra."**

Suddenly, Naruto understood everything to do with his body.

EVERYTHING.

He instantly began replicating every cell in his body. Kurama was right – it took a huge amount of energy. Without Kurama's chakra he would have probably only made a clone that was 1/20 of the size it should be. Soon, there was another Naruto standing in front of him.

" _Wait... how come I can't control him?"_

" **What you've made is just a normal human. If you want to be able to control him, you'll have to change the structure of his brain."**

Surprisingly, Naruto understood Kurama. Maybe it was because he understood how the human body worked perfectly?

" **You will have to hide this from the ninja, so when you use this throw a smoke bomb before."**

 _Flashback end_

Everything had worked perfectly, but Kurama was right. Naruto already felt like collapsing because he had almost no energy left. He just made it back to his seat before he collapsed and fell asleep.

Hours later, Naruto felt something shake him and opened his eyes. He saw Shikamaru waking him up.

"Wake up, school's done," Shikamaru said.

"Oh, thanks," Naruto said.

"So, did you pass?" Shikamaru asked. Truthfully, he didn't think so, but he was shocked with Naruto's answer.

"Yep! I'm so happy!" Naruto shouted. "I've got to celebrate! Wanna come with me to Ichiraku's?"

"Well..." Shikamaru couldn't be bothered.

"I'll pay!" Naruto said.

"...Fine, whatever. I'd better bring Chouji as well."

And so the three boys ended up having a ramen eating contest. Shikamaru gave up pretty quickly, but Naruto and Chouji battled fiercely. In the end Naruto won because of his love for ramen.

"Okay! Time to pay!" Naruto said.

"Actually, just for today you don't have to," Teuchi, the cook, said.

"How come?" Naruto asked, confused.

"We heard that you passed the test!" Ayame, Teuchi's daughter, said. "Congrats!"

"Thanks guys!" This was probably Naruto's best day yet. Free ramen and graduation? Sweet!

"However, now we're expecting great things from you. You'd better not let us down!" Teuchi said.

Naruto was left speechless. To think that they believed in him this much...

"HAI! I will become the greatest Hokage ever and make the village acknowledge me! I will definitely not let you down!"

His journey as a ninja had just begun.

 _Thanks for liking/following the previous chapter .I'll try being consistent in chapter uploads but please be patient if I am not. Also, who do you want to be in the harem? I can't have more than 6 to 7 girls (and do you want gender bended characters?). Peace._


	3. Chapter 3

I don't own Naruto.

 **Eyes**

Naruto woke up a little earlier than usual. Today was the day that the genin squads were going to be picked, so there was no way that he was going to be late. After getting ready quickly, he rushed out and made his way to the school. When he got there, only Sasuke and a few others were present – he had arrived early.

" _It's Sasuke! Hmph."_ He was about to say something to Sasuke when he remembered what Kurama had said. _"Grrr! Can't say anything mean to him..."_

As he sat down, he remembered something else that Kurama had said – someone in the class liked him. He decided to check out every one that walked in to find that person.

An hour later and he had no luck. He hadn't seen anyone that acted like they loved him – was Kurama lying to him?

"Alright class!" Iruka had arrived with a sheet in his hand. "Settle down. Today you will find out what genin squad you are in and who your teacher will be."

Everyone went quiet as they listened with much anticipation. Iruka began calling the squads. Finally, he got to the important people (i.e. people from clans or people who had done well).

"Team 7 – Sasuke Uchiha, Haruno Sakura and... Kiba Inuzuka!" Sakura shouted in joy as she realized that she was in the same group as her idol, Kiba grinned since he would get the chance to practice with someone as strong as Sasuke and Sasuke... said nothing.

"Team 8 – Hinata Hyuuga, Shino Aburame and... Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto didn't really mind the two – they were one of the few people in the village who weren't mean to him. Hinata started blushing heavily. Shino... also said nothing.

(AN: the rest of the teams are the same as in the anime).

After, team 8 were told to go to a different room to meet their sensei. When they arrived there, they found a woman waiting for them. She had long black hair, red eyes and she wore a little dress which was white and red.

"Hello, my name is Kurenai Yuhi. I will be your sensei from now on," she said.

Kurenai's point of view

" _Let's see... Shino should be a good student from what I've read, and Hinata's only problem is that she's too shy. The only one I'm worried about is the demon bo- wait, I mean Naruto. I hope he's nothing like what I've read..."_ she thought.

Normal point of view

"Okay students, listen up. You haven't become genin yet," she said.

"What! But we passed the test!" Naruto shouted.

" _I get the feeling that he's going to be annoying..."_ Kurenai thought. "Yes, but now you must pass my own test. We will go to training ground 8. You will have 2 hours to find me (I will be hidden) and touch me."

"Touch you?" Naruto asked, confused. _"She wants us to touch her? Is she into kids?"_

"Not like that," Kurenai said as she rolled her eyes, "as in land a hit."

"Oh okay." Naruto nodded. _"Why didn't she just say that?"_

A few minutes later, they were in training ground 8. When he first saw it, all Naruto saw was a large, empty area. However, he blinked and the whole scenery changed – it had trees, plants and rocks. _"What had I seen before then?"_ Naruto thought.

"Begin!" As soon as Kurenai said that, she disappeared. The three looked at each other.

"I propose we think of a strategy first," Shino said.

"You..." Naruto said with shadows in his eyes.

"What?" asked Shino.

"That's... the first thing I've heard you say! So you can speak!" Naruto said. Shino just stared at him and resisted the urge to face palm.

"Umm..." Hinata said shyly. When they both looked at her she blushed.

"Don't be afraid, Hinata! Tell us," Naruto said.

"Umm... I think we should use Shino's bugs to, umm... scout a large area with aid from my, umm... Byakugan, then Naruto should close in." She looked up hopefully and blushed when she saw them nodding and smiling.

Then they began. Hinata activated her Byakugan and began scanning the forest while Shino released a large amount of his bugs and just scattered them. They began spreading out to look for living creatures. Meanwhile, Naruto began going into the forest to search up close.

30 minutes later, they had found nothing. _"Damnit! Where is she?"_ Naruto was starting to panic a bit. _"How are we meant to find her?"_ Then he heard a snort in his head. _"Oh yeah! Kurama, can you help me?"_

" **Huh, fine. I'll only give you one clue though."**

" _Okay, what is it?"_

" **Send out a chakra pulse. Use a lot of chakra."**

" _Umm, okay..."_ He tried it, then gasped when he felt something further ahead to his right. _"Was that her? Thanks, Kurama!"_

" **Huh. I did nothing."**

Naruto ran back to Shino and Hinata. "Guys! Focus your search on that area," he said, pointing at the place he had felt chakra. Shino looked at him weirdly, but listened to Naruto's orders. Soon enough, they found her position and ran to her.

"There she is!" Naruto shouted. As they closed in to attack her, they felt something weird. Only Hinata was able to understand it though.

"Umm... we're in a genjutsu..." Their eyes widened as they realized it too, then they all ejected chakra to get out of it. Suddenly, all of the forest disappeared and was replaced with a bare training ground.

"Where's it all gone?" asked Shino. For once, Naruto understood.

"We were in a genjutsu the whole time! I saw her casting it but I didn't realize that she was casting a genjutsu," he said.

"Well done," Kurenai said. They turned around and saw her walking towards them. "You did better than I expected." _"Especially Naruto, I thought he would have been useless,"_ she thought.

"Now for the last part – you must try to land a hit on me. Don't worry, I won't use genjutsu. Begin!"

At once, the three began attacking her. Shino stayed back and used his bugs while Hinata and Naruto used close combat. However, they still couldn't touch her. _"Shit! What shall I do? How can I touch her?"_ Naruto began thinking. However, he wasn't a great thinker, so he gave up on thinking and just kept on attacking. In the end, they stopped because they needed a rest.

"Okay, the test is over now," Kurenai said.

"What? But we haven't touched you yet!" Naruto said, confused.

"The purpose of the test was just to see what level you guys are on. You are dismissed for now, but we will meet here every day at 8am. Clear?"

They all nodded.

"Well, see you tomorrow," she said, then disappeared. The three looked at each other.

"I will see you two tomorrow," Shino said, before walking off. There were only two left. They looked at each other awkwardly, Hinata with a blush on her face. _"Come on! This is your chance! Do it!"_ she thought to herself. Finally, she built up enough courage.

"Umm, Naruto..." she couldn't continue when he looked at her.

"Yes Hinata?" Hearing his voice gave her confidence – his voice was full of determination and confidence.

"Umm... the truth is... I..." Finally, she collapsed mentally.

"I'll see you tomorrow!" she squeaked and ran off.

Naruto shrugged and was about to follow her when he heard Kurama: **"Wait. I need to teach you, remember."**

" _Oh yeah! What are you going to teach me then?"_

There was silence as Kurama thought. Finally, he responded.

" **I will start with something relatively easy – I will teach you how to give yourself a short boost in power."**

He showed Naruto how to use the technique by thinking about it. In the technique, Naruto would make his lungs work at 10 times their usual effectiveness, meaning he would get a far larger amount of Oxygen than usual. This would increase the energy creation in his cells, giving him more energy.

It was a simple technique, and although it only lasts for a few minutes because of the way he would overwork his lungs, it would increase his physical abilities to the point where he would be able to fight on level with an average chunin for those few minutes.

For a genin who has been a ninja for one day, that was a massive jump in ability. Naruto kept training that technique for most of the night until he could keep it up for 5 minutes.

For the whole training session, one thought was going through his head: _"I will become Hokage!"_

 _You may be wondering why Naruto isn't in team 7. This is because he only went to team 7 in the first place because he was the worst in the class, and he isn't the worst in this class. Also, I wanted to try something different._

 _Changing fonts is way more tiring than you'd think. Any suggestions on abilities? Feedback welcomed. Peace._


	4. Chapter 4

I don't own Naruto.

 **And**

Naruto woke up. It was his second day as a genin, and he was excited about the training that they were going to do. He quickly got ready then ran to training ground 8, where he found Shino waiting.

"Yo!" Naruto said. "Have you been waiting for long?"

Shino shook his head.

"You sure don't talk much, do you?"

"Talking lowers my alertness, and ninjas must stay alert all the time."

After that he went back to being silent. However, Naruto couldn't bare the silence. _"Damnit! What shall I say? It's too awkward!"_

" **Knowledge is power."**

" _Oh! Shall I ask him about his clan then?"_

Kurama didn't reply.

" _Fine, whatever."_

"Hey Shino, could you tell me about your clan?"

"Why do you want to know about my clan?"

"Well, we're in the same team, so we should get to know each other, right?"

"... Very well. My clan, the Aburame clan, is famous for its cooperation with bugs, specifically chakra draining bugs. These bugs aren't just used for battle – they are very useful for wide-range tracking."

"Scary! I wouldn't want to touch those. But..."

"What?"

"I don't know, it seems as if you rely on the bugs too much, you know what I mean?"

"Care to expand on your point?"

"Well, if you came up against someone who was faster than your bugs and relied on taijutsu, what would you do then?"

Shino stopped to think. Soon, Hinata came, followed by Kurenai.

"Okay guys, first we will work on your teamwork. Teamwork is a vital part of being a ninja, as there will come a time when you can't survive without your teammates," Kurenai said.

"Are we going to do missions?" Naruto asked.

"In a few days, yes. However, you will start with D-rank missions," Kurenai replied. The three nodded.

For the rest of the day they did various activities to improve their teamwork such as trust falls (AN: search it up if you don't know what it is, it's pretty fun).

Finally, Kurenai said, "See you tomorrow," and vanished.

" _Hey Kurama, are we going to train now?"_

" **At night. I don't want anyone watching."**

" _Okay. I'll come back later."_

"Hey guys, do you want to go eat some ramen with me?" Naruto asked his teammates.

"I'm sorry Naruto, I must go home now because my father has, umm, called me," Hinata said sadly.

"Don't worry, we can go another time," Naruto said to her whilst smiling. Hinata nodded and smiled back.

"See you tomorrow!" Hinata said before leaving.

Naruto turned to Shino. "So can you come?" he asked him. Shino nodded silently.

"Nice, let's go!"

After they had eaten, Shino took Naruto to a bench and sat down.

"What's up?" asked Naruto.

Shino sighed. "I have been thinking about what you said about my clan's reliance on bugs. Do you have any advice for me?"

Naruto went quiet and started thinking. He was about to say something when Kurama spoke:

" **Wait."**

" _What?"_

" **He might be able to help you in your training by acting as a training partner."**

" _So shall I tell him about my secret?"_

" **I'm not sure if we can trust him yet."**

" _He's my friend; of course you can trust him!"_

" **Even so, I have an ability that will enable you to scan his mind. However, I will need you to allow me to control your body for a bit."**

Shino got up. "If you don't know, then I guess I'll just go now."

"Wait! I think I have an idea," Naruto said, holding on to Shino's hand.

" _Fine Kurama, but you'd better be quick!"_

Suddenly, Naruto felt his control over his body disappear (AN: I don't know if he can do this but whatever ;)). Then, he something incredibly weird – his hand began merging with Shino's hand! Shino felt it too and looked down. His eyes widened when he saw what happened, but their hands went back to normal a second later.

Shino's eyes narrowed. "What was that?" he asked.

" _Hey Kurama, quick! Can I tell him?"_

After a long silence, Kurama replied. **"Yes."**

"Okay. This is going to sound crazy weird, but I can prove it. Actually, I already proved it in front of your eyes."

"What is _it_?" asked Shino.

Then Naruto proceeded to tell him about being a Jinchuuriki and obtaining his weird powers after the attack. After he had finished, Shino was quiet (well he always is).

Finally, he said, "Does it not bother you that you are getting help from the creature that made your life bad from the beginning? Your parents were killed by the Kyuubi, weren't they?"

Naruto's eyes widened as he realized this. Of course, Kurama had basically told him that before, but he hadn't remembered because he was constantly thinking about the new power that he had gained.

" **I knew this day would come. I'll explain it later, brat."**

Naruto could do nothing but nod. He then asked Shino if he wanted to train with him, and when Shino nodded, they trained their taijutsu for a while before Shino left. Kurama then told Naruto to stop training.

" **I will tell you what happened on that day. I'm not going to tell you a long story – remembering it angers me – but basically, I was placed in a genjutsu by an Uchiha with the sharingan and was forced to attack the village."**

" _Wait... so you didn't attack us of your own free will?"_

" **Imagine you're walking down a street and you see an ant, brat. What do you do to the ant?"**

" _Err... nothing? I would just carry on walking."_

" **Well that's how I feel about humans. I could destroy them easily, but what's the point? It won't benefit me in any way."**

After a short silence, Naruto said, _"Can you tell me more about my parents?"_

" **I don't know much about either, but I do know that your mother, Kushina Uzumaki, came from a family that was famous for being incredible at fuinjutsu and your father, Minato Namikaze – i.e. the Fourth Hokage – was an incredible ninja nicknamed the yellow flash."**

" _Why was he nicknamed the yellow flash?"_

" **Apparently, he had a jutsu called the Hiraishin which allowed him to instantly teleport to a given location."**

" _Whoa! I have got to learn that!"_

" **Well, you're not going to learn it in one night – it's going to take years."**

" _I don't care! I will keep on practising until I can perform it!"_

" **Whatever. By the way, the abilities I will teach you today aren't the type that you can use instantly in a battle – they are abilities that will gradually improve your strength."**

" _Nice! What are they?"_

Kurama then showed Naruto the abilities.

The first involved constantly damaging his muscles then healing them to make them slightly stronger than before. The second involved constantly replacing his skin cells with newer, harder cells to make his skin harder. Now, the rate at which he will become stronger with these abilities is very slow, but Kurama informed Naruto that if he does this all the time, in one year he will be as strong as he would have been in five years.

Since he couldn't train these abilities (they were passive), Kurama decided to train Naruto in using Kurama's chakra. The progress that the made that night was very small, but Kurama assured Naruto that he will gradually become better.

Finally, Naruto collapsed in his bed. Instead of going to sleep instantly, he started thinking about Kurama and the attack.

" _When the villagers talked about Kurama they made him seem like a monster, but he's actually pretty nice! Who would have guessed?"_

Soon enough, he fell asleep. However, unknown to him, Kurama had heard everything Naruto had thought.

" _ **This brat might turn out to be different from the others..."**_

 _Sorry for the slightly shorter chapter. Thank you very much for reviewing/following this story, it really motivates me to write more. Also, I liked the ideas in some of the reviews so I might be using some of them. Actually, I already have – thanks to the guest user called_ _AngelofDeath666, I used one of your ideas, please feel free to tell me more of your ideas._

 _Finally, does no one want Hinata in the harem? Peace._


	5. Chapter 5

I don't own Naruto.

 **You**

One week had passed since Naruto had become a genin, and in all of the training sessions they had only done teamwork exercises. Of course, because of this Naruto's relationship with the others had increased greatly, but it still didn't change the fact that he was bored – he wanted to do some missions or start some proper training. The only thing that had kept him from complaining was his training with Kurama. During the past week, he had trained his existing abilities and his control over Kurama's chakra. He had also gained several new abilities – the one he was most fond of was an ability which he called Accel, which involved increasing the efficiency of his lungs, increasing his heart beat speed and increasing the rate of energy creating in his cells, giving him a huge boost in physical ability which he could maintain for a few minutes.

Today, team 8 were finally going on a mission – a D-rank. They were to help a farmer out by gathering his many crops in his large farm. They were able to finish it pretty quickly, so when they finished Kurenai brought them to training ground 8.

"Today, we will begin your personal training," she said.

"Yes! Finally!" Naruto shouted whilst jumping for joy. Hinata also nodded in happiness. Shino... did nothing.

"We will cover some basic activities before moving to more advanced stuff. For now, you must try to do this," Kurenai said, before bringing a leaf and putting it on her forehead.

" _Wait... how is this training?"_ Naruto thought.His eyes widened when he saw that the leaf didn't drop even after she let go of it. "Cool! How are you doing that?" Naruto asked.

Kurenai smirked. "You use chakra to keep it stuck on your skin. However, be careful – too little chakra, and the leaf won't stick, and too much and the leaf will be blown away."

For the rest of the lesson they struggled to complete the exercise. Hinata found it relatively easy as all Hyuuga are trained in chakra control. Shino found it mildly difficult but he was soon able to do it.

Naruto was hopeless. There was no other way of putting it. He used far too much or far too little chakra each time.

"Grr! Why can't I do it?" Naruto shouted to no one in particular.

" _It seems as if he has too much chakra to control because of that Kyuubi... not much I can do about that,"_ Kurenai thought. _"Well, at least he is enthusiastic..."_

Finally, Kurenai stopped Naruto. "Okay guys, see you tomorrow. Hinata, Shino, you will be doing other exercises tomorrow."

"What about me? Am I going to be stuck with this exercise?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, but since it will take a long time to master anyway, you won't be spending all your time on it. You will see tomorrow. Goodbye!" Kurenai said, before vanishing.

Shino and Hinata also left after saying goodbye. Naruto stayed and trained with Kurama, but he finished earlier than usual. He decided to walk around the village. However, when he walked past training ground 7, he heard the sound of someone training.

" _Who is it?"_ Naruto thought. He snuck in and saw Sasuke training by himself. He hid himself and watched Sasuke for a while, until Sasuke stopped and began walking to him.

"What do you want?" asked Sasuke.

" _How did he see me?"_ Naruto thought. "Why do you train that hard?" he asked.

Sasuke stared at him. "Why do you care?" he asked.

Naruto hated what he was going to say next, but he needed to know if he wanted to be strong. "Because I want to be strong, and you are stronger than me, so I thought I would get some tips from you."

Sasuke's eyes widened. _"Wait... is the dobe being serious? He's actually being serious about training?"_

You see, this Naruto was slightly different to before he graduated. Actually, a lot more different. This was mainly because of one thing Kurama had done a few nights ago.

Flashback

Naruto was about to go to sleep after a training session when Kurama said, **"Wait, brat. Let me take control of your body for a few seconds."**

Naruto narrowed his eyes. _"Why?"_

" **I'm tired of you being so dumb. I refuse to be in a dumb container. I will make you cleverer."**

" _What! How are you going to do that?"_

" **I'm going to create new brain cells that are better than the ones you already have and I am going to increase the number of connections between the nerves in your brain."**

" _I get the brain cells part, but what about the nerve part? What does that do?"_

" **More connections between your nerves mean you are able to make more connections between stuff in real life, increasing your deductive skills and your thinking speed."**

Naruto nodded and gave Kurama control. It was over in a few seconds.

Flashback over

Basically, Naruto was cleverer. Now, he wasn't some genius like Shikamaru – he was just above average.

Sasuke, after seeing that Naruto was being serious, said, "I want to awaken my Sharingan."

"Sharingan? Is it good? Can I get it?" Naruto asked.

"No, idiot. It's crazy good, but it's a kekkei genkai, so you can't get it. If you don't know what that is then go read about it. Now go."

So that's what Naruto did. He went to the library after disguising himself as a civilian and read about the Sharingan and kekkei genkai. He then also read about his father, the Hiraishin (his father's famous jutsu), his mother, the Uzumaki clan and finally, fuinjutsu (which was his clan's speciality). Because of his newfound intelligence, he began making loads of connections and started thinking of some amazing ideas.

When he got back home, he had a few questions to ask Kurama.

" _Hey Kurama! How long would it take me to make a fully independent clone around my age?"_

" **Well, if you want a mindless creature like the one you created in the graduation test, you can create one instantly with my chakra."**

" _No, I want one that can live without me but recognizes me as its master. Also, I want it to be an Uchiha."_

At this, Kurama's eyes didn't just widen, they almost popped out.

" **What! Why do you want to make an Uchiha clone?"**

" _I wanna find out more about the Sharingan."_

" **Then why don't you do it on yourself?"**

" _I would have to become an Uchiha by changing all of my cells, and I don't want that to happen, because I am an Uzumaki till the day I die."_

Naruto said it normally, but Kurama could detect enough determination to make him impressed.

" **Well, using my chakra, it would take a day max."**

" _Nice!"_

" **But I'm not going to help you."**

" _What! Why?"_

" **Because I hate the Sharingan."**

Then Naruto remembered that it was the Sharingan that had subdued Kurama.

" _...Fine, I understand. Okay, how long would it take me to create one?"_

" **Maybe a week, probably more if you want to stay safe and not exert yourself."**

" _Okay, thanks! So let's see... I'm going to have to create the clone inside me until it's mature to live outside me. Also, the most important parts, how big will they be? They can't be small, but they can't be big otherwise they will be annoying..."_

" **What is this thing that you are thinking about the size of?"**

" _...Her boobs."_

Hearing this, Kurama didn't even bother to say anything; he just went to sleep, thinking something along the lines of: _**"I am not prepared to talk with a pervert..."**_

Finally, Naruto slept.

For the next few days, Naruto would do D-rank missions with his team, train with Kurama, and occasionally talk with Sasuke.

One day, a few days after Naruto and Sasuke had begun talking, Sasuke requested for Naruto to have a spar.

"There's no point in you just coming here to speak to me. Spar with me," said Sasuke.

Naruto grinned. "Let me warn you, I'm not the pushover I used to be!"

"We'll see. Taijutsu only," Sasuke said, smirking. He didn't want to risk hurting Naruto.

They began their fight.

Sasuke had the Uchiha style of fighting to use, but Naruto only relied on his physical abilities, so in the end Sasuke won. This was also due to the fact that Sasuke had begun to train long before Naruto – of course he would be better.

However, it went nothing like Sasuke had thought. Instead of rushing in, Naruto had stayed back for a bit to test out Sasuke's range, before coming in and trying to land hits with solid, precise punches – nothing like the Naruto that Sasuke knew. Sasuke thought that he would have been able to finish this with just an arm and a leg, but in the end he even had to use his head to head butt Naruto when he had been off balance and unable to punch or kick.

After they had finished, they were both panting heavily and both grinning wildly. As they looked at each other, something was created that night - something created because of their similar love for action and a racing heart.

That night, a bond was created between them. That night, they became brothers.

 _Sorry if the ending was cheesy ;). Thank you for supporting this fan fiction – seeing the number of followers always makes my heart jump._

 _Last chance to decide – shall I make Hinata part of the harem?_

 _Peace._


	6. Chapter 6

I don't own Naruto.

 **Will**

Several weeks had passed since graduation day. During this time, Naruto had begun sparring with Sasuke – he would switch between training with Kurama one night and sparring with Sasuke the other. Also, Kiba had begun to join them since he had seen them a few days ago.

Flashback

Naruto and Sasuke were sparring deep in to the night yet again, when they heard someone coming into the training ground. When they looked, they saw Kiba coming in with a large grin.

"Can I join in?" he asked them. The two looked at each other, and when Sasuke shrugged, Naruto said, "Sure!"

They began having a three-way battle. While they were fighting, Kiba said, "Man, Naruto, You're nothing like you used to be before you graduated! How are you this strong already?"

Naruto just grinned and carried on fighting.

Flashback over

Since then, the three began practising together every other night. Practising together for several weeks had brought them closer together, and they were already at the point where Naruto would frequently force them to eat ramen with him.

Kurenai's training had also started to become more focused and intense. With Naruto, she would try to help him create his own taijutsu style – she refused to teach him ninjutsu until he was able to complete the tree climbing exercise (walking up trees using chakra to stay on the tree). With Hinata, she would train her Gentle Fist taijutsu style and teach her a few D-rank wind release (Futon) jutsu. Finally, with Shino she would help him gain more control over his bugs. She would also train them all in detecting and using genjutsu once a week since this was her speciality.

Naruto was happy with most of what she was doing, but he couldn't help but feel as if Shino was still relying on his bugs too much, so eventually, he began bringing Shino to the sparring with Sasuke and Kiba to improve his taijutsu.

Finally, Kurama's training had begun to have big effects – Naruto was now able to use enough of Kurama's chakra to potentially scare even jonin (although he knew he had no chance of beating one if they got serious). Naruto's special ability training had also become much harder, resulting in him learning more – he had replaced his nerve cells with better cells to drastically improve his five senses; he had begun strengthening his bones to increase his defensive capabilities; and he had begun to learn how to control his endocrine system (which was involved in releasing hormones amongst other things).

However, all of this success was overshadowed by one thing.

Flashback

"Hey Sasuke, when is your Sharingan going to awaken?" Naruto asked while they were sparring.

"I don't know," Sasuke replied, "but I know that it only awakens when I overwork my body."

"Well, I was thinking... you're not exactly being overworked right now, because you can beat us in one-on-one taijutsu matches."

"What's your point?" asked Sasuke.

"Well, if everyone attacks you at the same time that will overwork you, right?"

Sasuke nodded. "Are you guys okay with that?" he asked Kiba and Shino.

"Sure! But only if you do the same to me," Kiba said. Shino just nodded.

"Well then let's go!" Naruto shouted, and the three began attacking Sasuke together. With the three of them combined, they could have easily defeated Sasuke, but they didn't fight at their fullest strength to give him a chance. Nevertheless, Sasuke began getting pushed back severely, and soon his face was also bloody from the amount of hits it had received.

"Let's finish this!" Kiba cried, before rushing in. Sasuke was distracted fighting Naruto, so he didn't see Kiba rushing in until it was too late. Kiba swung his fist.

And hit nothing.

In the last moment, Sasuke had dodged the fist by ducking.

"What the... how did you do that? You were distracted!" Kiba said in shock.

When Sasuke turned around, they saw that his eyes were no longer black, but instead they were blood-red with one black tomoe in each – he had awakened the Sharingan.

Flashback over

Feeling pretty pleased with himself, Naruto was wandering around the village (getting some hateful glares which he ignored) when he saw a ninja with silver hair carrying a scroll. _"That's Mizuki, my former teacher!"_ Naruto thought. _"What's he doing? And why is he sneaking around like he's scared of being spotted? And what is that scroll he's carrying?"_

" **Argh, stop asking questions and just follow him!"**

Naruto nodded and began tailing Mizuki without his former sensei realizing. The chase led him outside Konoha to the surrounding forest, where Mizuki stopped and unrolled the scroll. When Mizuki began laughing quietly in a manic way, Naruto knew something was up.

" _Kurama, how can I see what's written on the scroll?"_

" **Tch, you think I know the answer to everything. Channel chakra into your eyes."**

Naruto did as he was told and found that he could read what was on the scroll. However, when he read the title, his eyes widened in shock. _"Why does he have the forbidden scroll? I've got to get it back!"_

" **Wait! After you beat him, read the scroll for a bit. You might find some useful jutsu."**

Naruto smiled. "Let's do this!" he whispered. "Accel!"

Suddenly, he received a massive boost in energy and he rushed towards Mizuki. He had been so quiet and he had moved so quickly that Mizuki hadn't noticed him until it was too late – Naruto smashed his fist into Mizuki's face. Not giving him a chance to rest, he began to punch and kick Mizuki until he was confident that his former sensei had fainted.

It had ended so quickly, Naruto was slightly disappointed. _"He could have put up a better fight..."_

" **What do you expect, you caught him by surprise."**

Next, Naruto began looking through the scroll. There were tons of new jutsu that he could have learned, but he knew that ninjas looking for the scroll would eventually find him, so he chose to copy out the instructions for only a few jutsu – the Hiraishin (because his father used it), the Shadow Clone jutsu (because he wanted to compare it to his own cloning) and the Impure Summoning (this one was just plain bad ass). He was interested in another jutsu – the Death Soul Reaper jutsu – but he read that if he used it then he would die, so he had to forget about that one.

After he had copied the jutsu, he began dragging Mizuki back to the Hokage's tower. When he arrived there, he entered the Hokage's room without bothering to knock. _"This time I've got a valid reason for not knocking!"_ he thought.

When he looked into the room, he found a large number of ninja, mostly jonin-level, staring at him. He looked at the desk and found Hiruzen staring at him as well. From amongst the crowd of ninja, he heard someone saying, "Don't you know what knocking is, brat?"

Hiruzen raised his hand to stop anyone else from speaking. "Naruto, as you can see, there is something important going on. Can you wait outside if you want to speak to me?" he asked patiently.

Naruto walked outside, but he didn't wait outside – he came straight back in.

"Naruto, I told you to-" Hiruzen stopped when he saw what Naruto had brought in – the body of Mizuki along with the scroll. Hiruzen's eyes widened. "How did you find him?" he asked, leaning forward.

"I saw him hurrying off suspiciously, so I tailed him, and when I saw that he had the forbidden scroll, I knocked him out and brought him here," Naruto answered, trying to suppress a smile.

"You knocked him out without the help of anyone else?" a random jonin asked suspiciously. Naruto nodded, barely keeping a straight face.

Hiruzen sighed in relief. "Well, I no longer need you," he said to the crowd of ninja, "so you can return to your previous duties." With that, they all left the room. Naruto and Hiruzen were the only ones left.

"Naruto, did you open the scroll? I hope you didn't, because there is a reason why it is called the _forbidden_ scroll," Hiruzen said with a stern voice. Naruto shook his head innocently, knowing that if he spoke his voice would betray him.

Hiruzen sighed again. "Very well. You may go, I will deal with this traitor," he said, looking at Mizuki. Naruto quickly left the room, and only when he arrived in his house did he start smiling widely. _"I fooled them all!"_ he thought happily.

" **Brat, when are you going to start working on those jutsu you've acquired?"**

" _Well, if any of them are easy then I'll try to finish them now before I go to sleep."_

He began working of the three jutsu. He ended up staying up for an hour to learn the Shadow Clone jutsu. Happy that he was able to learn a new jutsu that quickly, he began looking though the other two.

And instantly gave up.

The other two were on a far higher level – he wasn't even sure he would be able to learn even one of them even if he trained for the rest of the year, that's how hard they were. However, Naruto didn't lose hope – he just vowed to learn the two, even if it took him his life!

 _Yo. I've pretty much decided who's going to be in the harem thanks to your reviews, but you might not see much romance for a few chapters because I really want to get the plot going. If you're worried about me focusing on Naruto's powers too much and no enough on other characters, don't worry, I have a few things in store for them._

 _As always, thanks for supporting. Peace._


	7. Chapter 7

I don't own Naruto.

 **See**

Naruto had woken up earlier than usual for a reason – his clone that he had been making was finally finished. However, calling it a clone wouldn't exactly be right – more like he had created a new human. The girl looked very similar to Naruto – she was around the same age, with long blonde hair and blue eyes. Overall, she looked like a female version of Naruto. However, the biggest difference was that she was an Uchiha – her very genes were the same as an Uchiha's genes. He had been slowly making her inside him at first before she became too big, so he brought her out and began raising her in his house. Finally, she was fully grown and looked like a normal human.

"Hello!" Naruto said to her.

"Hello, Naruto-san!" she replied.

"Naruto-san? It's okay, you can just call me Naruto," Naruto said.

"Very well, Naruto," she replied.

"Now, what shall I call you..." Naruto thought out loud.

" **Are you planning to make her become a ninja?"**

" _Yeah... oh crap! Thanks Kurama, I just remembered that I need to think of a back story!"_

"I know! How about I call you Naruko?"

The girl nodded eagerly. "I don't mind what Naruto calls me," she said with a slight blush.

"Err, okay," Naruto said. "So Naruko, do you know who I am?"

"Of course, Naruto. You're my beloved master!"

"Well... I'm not sure if that's our relationship..." Naruto said, blushing slightly at the thought of a hot servant.

"Oh, so we have a relationship," Naruko whispered quietly as she began closing in on Naruto, wrapping her arms around him whilst smiling.

" _Wait... is she trying to... SEDUCE ME!?"_

Kurama rolled his eyes.

" _Why is this happening, Kurama!?"_

" **You wanted to make a clone with some sort of connection to you, right? It just so happened that the connection was that she would be in love with you. It could have easily been respect or trust instead of love. You're just really lucky."**

"Err, Naruko, please wait!" Naruto said, obviously flustered. "You need to go to be registered as a ninja first!"

"Ninja?" Naruko asked. "What is that?"

" _Oh great. Do I have to explain everything to her?"_

" **Let me take control of you for a few seconds. I can pass on all of your knowledge to her."**

When Kurama took control of Naruto, he joined his hand with Naruko's hand. Naruko was so shocked that she attempted to pull her hand away, but Naruto said, "Wait! Just trust me." She calmed down a bit, although she couldn't stop eyeing their hands weirdly.

In a few seconds it was over. Naruko gasped as she suddenly gained a large amount of information. After a while, she looked up at Naruto. _"Is she angry?"_ Naruto thought worriedly.

"Naruto... have you thought of a backup story?" she asked.

"Eh... what? Oh, yeah I have. I'll tell you on the way to the Hokage's office."

Soon, they arrived at the Hokage's office. When they entered the Hokage's room, they found Hiruzen working at his desk.

"Yo, Ojisan!" Naruto greeted him.

"Hello Naruto. Who is this girl with you? She looks like your twin!" Hiruzen joked.

"I know right? I found her near the entrance of the village. Seems like she's an orphan. Just like me!" Naruto said the last part in a carefree way, but Hiruzen could detect lots of hurt in his voice. Hearing this, his eyes softened a bit.

"Why don't you tell me more?" Hiruzen said.

Naruko began narrating the backup story they had agreed on – she was from an Uchiha branch family, and her parents had been ordered by Fugaku Uchiha (who was the head of the Uchiha at the time) to go to the land of Water (to Kirigakure) to protect some merchants who had hired them for protection. They were attacked by some particularly strong bandits and they had all been killed. Naruko had survived by hiding under the dead bodies of her parents, and when the bandits had gone, she had tried surviving in the wild before finally managing to return to Konoha.

Hiruzen was suspicious that she might have been a spy for other countries, so he told Naruto that he would have to get her interrogated first.

"How long will it take?" Naruto asked.

"A few days, maybe a week at most." Hiruzen replied. "Do you wish to become a ninja?" he asked Naruko. She nodded. "Okay, I will deal with everything later. Naruto, you may go now."

Naruto nodded. "See ya later, Naruko!" he said.

"Goodbye, Naruto!" she replied.

When he was walking towards training ground 8, he saw team 7 moving to the village entrance, packed up as if they would be gone for a few days.

"Yo, Sasuke, Kiba! And Sakura!" he shouted to get their attention. When the three saw him, Sasuke looked at their sensei, Kakashi, questioningly.

"Say goodbye to him, I'll be waiting for you at the gate," he said.

"Hmph. I'll come with you," Sakura said. The two left.

"Hi Naruto!" said Kiba.

"Where are you guys going?" Naruto asked.

Kiba smiled smugly. "Hah! We're the first team to get a C-rank mission!" he said.

"Whaaaat!" Naruto said incredulously.

Sasuke smiled as well. "We'll be back in a few days. We need to go now. Goodbye!"

"Come back safely!" Naruto said as they began to leave.

"Sure!" Kiba cried. Sasuke raised his hand to say goodbye.

" _Damn! I've got to go on a C-rank! I can't lose to them!"_

When he arrived at training ground 8, he found that they had started.

"Naruto, where were you?" Kurenai asked.

"I had to see the Hokage," he said.

"Okay. Now let's begin your training."

While he was training, he began to think about the new jutsu he had acquired, specifically the Shadow Clone jutsu (Kage Bunshin).

" _If you can sense what your clones are sensing, that means you can experience the same thing as them, right? So that means any experience they gain will be passed on to you, right? Does that mean that you can use them to train?"_

"Hey Kurenai-sensei, is it possible to use clones to help you train, since any experience they get will be passed on to you?" he asked her.

"Yes, but the effects are so small that it only helps if you have a large number of clones, larger than any normal ninja can create."

"Like this much?" Naruto asked, before using the jutsu. "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" Suddenly, there were a huge number of clones, numbering 100. Kurenai was speechless, and his teammates stopped their training in shock.

"How did you create that much? Do you feel any effects of chakra deficiency?"

Naruto shook his head and smiled.

"Well, with this you should be able to train your chakra control far quicker!" she said.

And so Naruto began training again.

A week later, Naruto was wandering around the village when he found Sasuke sitting by himself on a tree.

"Your back! Why didn't you tell me? And where's Kiba?"

After a short silence, Sasuke looked at Naruto with dead eyes.

"What's wrong, Sasuke? What happened?" Naruto asked, concerned that something bad had happened.

"... Kiba was... killed..."

 _Yo. I realize the story is getting pretty boring, but don't worry – the chunin exams will begin in 1 or 2 chapters hopefully._

 _Thanks for supporting. Peace._


	8. Chapter 8

I don't own Naruto.

 **That**

"What! What do you mean!?" Naruto asked in shock.

"... He was killed by some hunter-nin on the mission..." Sasuke said.

Naruto was speechless. He didn't feel any sorrow – yet. He was just shocked.

"Tell me what happened!" Naruto demanded.

"We were just escorting this man called Tazuna when Kiba told us that he could sense some ninja. Since we couldn't see anything, we carried on walking, but out of a puddle came two hunter-nin, and they killed Kiba first since he was the closest. Kakashi-sensei killed them straight away and returned us to the village, but it was too late for Kiba..."

Naruto started feeling the shock give way to despair and sorrow. Kiba had been one of Naruto's only friends. Before graduation, they hadn't really known each other, but they had been okay with each other because of their similar personalities. After graduation, however, they had become extremely close because of their training – Kiba had even picked up Naruto's love for ramen. To suddenly lose some one that close...

Sasuke got up. Naruto looked up at him. "Where are you going?" Naruto asked.

"To train."

"How can you train now, just after Kiba..." Naruto couldn't finish the sentence as he felt his throat clog up.

"Then what do you want me to do!" Sasuke suddenly shouted. "If you don't want anyone else to die, then you have to become strong enough to protect them!"

Naruto was speechless as he began to think about what Sasuke said.

"Besides, Kiba wouldn't want you to be like this, would he?" Sasuke asked softly after. At this, Naruto got up with a determined look in his eyes.

"You're right," he said simply. "That's why I'll be serious in our training from now on."

Sasuke smiled. "Let's go."

While they were sparring, Naruto was working his brain at a furious rate.

"Sasuke! Use your Sharingan! Full power!"

Sasuke activated his Sharingan and began fighting again. Naruto almost cried out in shock – the difference in his ability with and without the Sharingan was too big!

"Sasuke, stop! Come closer," he asked Sasuke. As Sasuke approached him, he looked into his eyes. Naruto's eyes widened.

"What is it?" Sasuke asked.

"...You've awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan!" Naruto said in shock.

"What! How is that possible? I haven't killed my closest friend!" Sasuke remarked.

"I don't know... I'll look into it for you."

"Thanks, Naruto."

They began sparring again.

Later, Naruto was at his house when an Anbu member came and told him that the Hokage was calling him, so Naruto went over.

"Ah, Naruto! Come in," Hiruzen said.

When Naruto came in, he saw Naruko in the room, and she was dressed in ninja clothes.

"What's up, Ojisan?" Naruto asked.

"Well, after thorough interrogation, I've decided that she will be allowed to become a ninja. She will be allocated to Kakashi's team since Kakashi can teach her about the Sharingan, and because unfortunately, Kiba was killed."

Naruto nodded, sad at the mention of his friend. "Where will she live?"

"Well, she wanted to live with you. Is that okay with you?" Naruto nodded.

"Okay, you may go now. Also, I'm sorry for the death of your friend, but I want you to know that ninja must be ready to die anytime," Hiruzen told Naruto. Naruto simply nodded and walked out.

"Naruto, who died?" Naruko asked. Naruto bit his lip and tried to stop the tears.

"... Your teammates can tell you..." Naruto wasn't in the mood to speak about it, and Naruko detected that so she kept quiet.

Naruto returned to his old routine, and for several weeks nothing happened.

However, one day when he arrived at training ground 8, Kurenai had some exciting news.

"The chunin exams will begin in a week. Do you guys wish to join?" she asked them suddenly. "You can give me the answer by tomorrow latest."

"Of course!" Naruto cried happily. Shino nodded as well.

" _Well, if Naruto's doing it then I'm definitely doing it!"_ Hinata thought before nodding as well.

"Oh! Well, that was fast. Well, carry on training, I guess."

When they finally finished training that day, Naruto asked Shino and Hinata to wait and train with him, and they both agreed.

"So, since the exams are coming up, I want to help you guys train, so I thought of some ways I could help you."

"You didn't have to..." Hinata said, blushing.

"Nah, it's okay. You're my teammates after all! So Shino, for you, I thought: since I have so much spare chakra, and your bugs need chakra to multiply, why not give you some of my chakra?"

Shino widened his eyes. "I would be indebted to you if you could do that."

"Also, I want to mix some Kyuubi chakra into it and see if it has a difference on your bugs," Naruto whispered to him. Shino nodded.

"And for you, Hinata, I've been working on something every since I saw your Byakugan eyes."

"Ever since you first saw them?" Hinata wondered what it could be.

" _To be honest, without you, Kurama, I wouldn't have even known I could do this. Thanks a bunch!"_

" **Sure, whatever."**

"Before I tell you what it is, I have something important to tell you," Naruto said to her.

He then proceeded to tell her his big secrets, telling her everything he had told Shino.

"I have already told Shino," he said. Naruto looked at her warily to see how she would react to him being a Jinchuuriki.

"Naruto... you've been through so much pain..." Hinata said with shadows over her eyes.

"Yeah, but I've forgotten about it all because of you guys!" Naruto said cheerfully.

Shino cleared his throat. "I don't mean to ruin the good mood, but we're running out of time."

"Oh! Sorry. Basically, the Kyuubi told me that if you combine the genes of a Hyuuga with an Otsutsuki, you can make the Byakugan advance into the Tenseigan, and he helped me make some Otsutsuki cells for me to give you."

Hinata almost fainted. "You can give me the Tenseigan! I thought that it was just a myth!"

"Hahaha, I know right? So, do you want the cells?" Naruto asked her. She began nodding vigorously. He then connected their hands together. Despite her excitement, it was just too weird for her, so she struggled for a bit before calming down. It was over quickly.

"So? Is there any difference?" Naruto asked her.

She activated her Byakugan and frowned. "Not that I can see..."

Suddenly, she gasped as her eyes began glowing slightly and changing colour. Soon, they had turned from the white colour of the Byakugan into a blue and white with a flower-like iris.

"It changed!" she almost shouted. Naruto and Shino smiled. "I'm sorry; can I leave now to show this to my father?"

"Of course! Goodbye!" Naruto said, smiling broadly. Shino nodded as a way of saying goodbye.

Naruto then turned to Shino. "I'll give you some normal chakra and some of the Kyuubi's chakra, then show me the results tomorrow. Deal?"

Shino nodded, before taking the chakra.

The next day, Naruto met Shino in the training ground early in the morning. "So what were the results?" Naruto asked eagerly.

Shino, for once, had a big smile. "The bugs that were given normal chakra grew normally. The bugs that were given the Kyuubi's chakra... just look for yourself."

From out of his sleeve, some bugs began to crawl out. However, these weren't the usual black bugs – they were slightly larger and were blood-red in colour.

"They evolved!" Naruto said in shock.

"Yes. These are better than the normal bugs in every way. However, I noticed that the ones that were given a larger amount of Kyuubi's chakra died."

"I guess his chakra is still corrosive, even to bugs."

Still, this was a massive success, and Naruto was elated during the training.

After the training, he went to Hinata. "So what were the results?" he asked her.

"Well, I am working on it with my father, but from what we've found, it increases my physical abilities."

"Is that it?" Naruto asked.

"My father said that there were probably other abilities hat we hadn't discovered yet. But still, thank you very much Naruto, I can't thank you enough!" Hinata said.

"Nah, it's okay! I'd do anything for you!" Naruto said with a happy smile.

"...Anything?" Hinata asked. "Even... a date?"

Naruto was shocked. "Wait... you want to go on a date with me? Why would you want to go on a date with me?"

" **You're an idiot. I tried giving you a clue back in the academy and you still missed it."**

" _What! What do you mean?"_

"Naruto... I love you..."

 _Yo. For those that think Hinata will become too overpowered now, don't worry, she won't use all of the abilities of the Tenseigan in the chunin exams. Anyway, I have something bigger coming her way..._

 _It's amazing where you can get inspiration from..._

 _Anyway, keep the suggestions coming – I've already used several of them._

 _Also, please review – reading feedback really lifts my mood._

 _Thanks for supporting. Peace._


	9. Chapter 9

I don't own Naruto.

 **This**

Naruto was too confused to speak. _"Me? Why does she like me? I thought she was scared of me! What does she see in me?"_ Endless thoughts went through Naruto's head. He opened his mouth, and then closed it as he realized he didn't know what to say.

"I'm sorry; I know I shouldn't have told you this now, what with the chunin exams coming up..." Hinata said.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, can we talk about it after the exams? I've got too much on my mind now."

"I know, I'm sorry," Hinata apologized.

"No, it's okay..." Naruto forced himself to stop thinking about anything perverted. "'ll see you tomorrow in training, yeah?"

"Yes Naruto. Goodbye!" Hinata waved him goodbye.

" _Damn, I did NOT see that coming."_

" **I did give you some hints. But honestly, I don't like that girl."**

" _What! Why? She's a nice girl!"_

" **Yeah, but she's too nice. I can't see her becoming an amazing ninja with her personality. And she's meant to be the heir to the Hyuuga clan..."**

The rest of the week passed quickly. Sasuke had become less talkative, and every time Naruto asked him about it Sasuke just kept silent.

" _Do you think he's still sad?"_

" **Hmph. I don't care about that Uchiha brat, but it's obviously not part of his personality to be that sad. I reckon he's thinking about something."**

" _If he's not grieving, I think I know what he's thinking about..."_

Finally, the chunin exams had arrived. Kurenai had wished them luck before dropping them off at the site. Naruto was pumped.

"Alright! Let's do this!" he shouted, before they entered the building. Immediately, they saw a large number of ninja making their way to some stairs. They climbed up a set of stairs, but when they found that they were still on the first floor, they became confused. Hinata prodded both of the boys.

"Look," she said, pointing at three ninja – two of them were bullying the third.

"...It's a genjutsu!" Naruto whispered. Due to Kurenai being specialized in genjutsu, she had trained them in detecting them and making them (well, she didn't train Naruto in making them because he was so useless, but he could still detect them). They quickly dispelled the genjutsu.

"They're using it to lower the number of participants," Shino observed as they entered the new door unseen. They then entered a large room which was filled with various ninja.

"Whoa, there's like, a hundred here!" Naruto whispered fiercely. They grabbed some empty desks and sat down. Soon, the other two genin teams their age came in, and they formed a circle as they began talking to each other. Naruto saw Naruko and motioned for her to come closer.

"Did Sasuke believe your story?" he asked her quietly.

She nodded her head. "But only after I told him my mother wasn't an Uchiha, which explained my blonde hair."

"How is your Sharingan training going?"

"Well, Kakashi went pretty harsh on me, so I managed to get one tomoe in that short time."

"Nice! But let me warn you, just because you live with me doesn't mean I'll hold back if we face each other in the test!"

"Hah! Just how I like it!" Naruko had picked up Naruto's personality after being with him for so long. "Of course, after the test is over, I'm willing to make you feel good..." Naruko's voice began to sound seductive and Naruto couldn't stop blushing.

Suddenly, Naruto began to pick up a scent which reminded him strongly of a snake. He looked around, and saw an unfamiliar ninja with silver hair and glasses approaching them. He looked like a typical bookworm, in his late teens or early twenties.

"Hello! This must be the first time doing this test for all of you. I'm Kabuto."

"What do you mean, first time? Have you done this more than once?" Ino asked him.

"This is my seventh time," he answered.

"Whoa... you're weak!" Choji exclaimed.

"Hahaha! No, I'm pretty decent. It just shows you how hard this test is, huh?" Seeing their expressions become grim, he said, "but don't worry! I can provide you with some information on the participants if you want."

The genin all began nodding vigorously. "Tell me who the strongest participants are," Sasuke ordered.

"Let's see... There's Gaara – he's the one-tail (Ichibi), and is known for having a perfect record in missions, even doing several A and B-rank missions, and is known for having an impenetrable defence, which has caused him to never be injured in missions –, there's Neji – he's the Hyuuga prodigy who was the rookie of the year last year –, there's Lee – he was useless in everything until recently; now, he's probably the best in taijutsu in the whole competition, albeit the worst in all other ninja arts -, and then there's you, Sasuke – the only Uchiha left, rookie of the year this year."

Naruko smirked at the last comment, but apart from that, no one smiled.

"What the hell! Gaara's record is too scary," Sakura said.

Suddenly, a large man with two scars on his face came in.

"Get into your seats! The test will now start!" he shouted. Everyone immediately went silent and sat down. The man began handing out papers to everyone.

"If you are caught cheating, you and your whole team will instantly fail! Begin!"

" _What the hell? What kind of short introduction was that? Also, what the hell's up with these questions? They're impossible!"_

" **You're going to have to cheat without getting caught."**

" _Well, with my enhanced senses that will be easy."_

Naruto quickly located someone who was confidently writing down his answers and easily copied his answers with his enhanced senses. During the test, a few people were caught and were failed.

"The test is now over," the man said, before taking in the sheets.

"What the hell? We only got 10 minutes!" a random ninja shouted. Soon, many ninja began complaining.

"Silence! Part of being a ninja is working quickly and efficiently under pressure! If you can't handle this, how are you going to be able to do high-risk assassination missions?" the man shouted.

He then failed even more people because they hadn't finished the test. Hinata had passed by using her Tenseigan and Shino had used his bugs to obtain answers.

"There is one question left. However, this is different from the other questions. If you get this wrong, you will be banned from entering this exam ever again. However, if you decide to withdraw, your whole team will fail, but you will be allowed to retake this exam. Decide now!"

After hearing this, many people began to withdraw. Naruto was full of confidence, and he was confident in Shino as well, but Hinata worried him, and when he looked at her, he saw that she was about to raise her hand. However, just as she was about to, she looked at him. He gave her a big smile and thumbs up, and seeing this, Hinata lowered her hand and smiled back.

" _Naruto always gives me confidence!"_ she thought.

"Those of you who are still here, you all pass," the man said.

"What? What about the question?" a random ninja asked.

"There never was a question. That was simply to see who was willing to risk their ninja career to pass. After all, when a ninja is on a mission, they should be prepared to sacrifice even their lives for the mission."

He let this sink in for a bit.

Suddenly, there came a loud crash as the windows broke. A woman flew in with a large banner saying 'Anko is the best!' The woman had purple hair and a playful, confident look on her face. She didn't wear much – a trench coat, a fishnet mesh top, a small skirt and boots – showing of a lot of skin as a result.

"Alright, let's get this started! Wait... Ibiki, you barely got rid of any!" she said loudly.

"Whatever, just start already. Also, you could have used the door you know..." Ibiki said.

"Well, whatever. Your numbers are going to drop like hell in my exam anyway! Meet me in the large plaza down there!" she said while pointing out the window, before jumping out.

A few minutes later, Anko was explaining the rules of the exam. (AN: it's the same as in the anime i.e. the exam in the forest of death).

"Right everyone, can you sign these forms to state that we were not responsible for your death?"

"Our death?" a random ninja asked.

"Oh sorry, I meant in case you die. Well, it's pretty dangerous in there, so there is a pretty high chance of you dying..." she finished spookily.

Team 8 then received a heaven scroll. "So we need to get an earth scroll," Hinata said.

"Any plans on what we should do?" Naruto asked as they prepared to rush into the forest.

"I think we should try to make our way to one of the other gates then move to the centre from there. That way, we can catch a team off guard from the back," Shino suggested.

The two nodded as they considered this. "The only problem is that it might take some time to follow the other team," Naruto pointed out.

"Then how about we get to the centre as fast as we can then set up traps?" Shino said.

"It's probably the best idea, but most people are likely to do that. We'll have to be quick," Naruto said.

They waited for a while until they heard a voice. "Begin the test!"

At once they rushed into the forest of death. They began making their way as fast as they could to the centre. Nothing happened for a few hours and they ran in peace (well, apart from the fact that they encountered several creatures and plants they had to fight), until they began sensing people a distance away.

"Shall we make our way to one of the teams?" Shino asked.

"Wait... I think I can smell something..." Naruto said. He poured chakra to his nose and sniffed the air.

"I can smell Kabuto!" Naruto exclaimed.

"How do you know it's Kabuto?" Shino asked.

"He smelt strongly of snakes when we first met him, and Anko was the only other person who smelt like that!" Naruto answered.

"... Doesn't it seem suspicious that they both smell of snakes?" Shino asked.

"... I guess, I hadn't thought of it... anyway; let's go that way to Kabuto."

"Why not to the other team? They're closer to us," Shino said.

"Yeah, but we never know who the other team is so they could be Gaara's group for all we know, but we know that Kabuto isn't that strong since he's failed the test six times already," Naruto said. The others nodded and they made their way to Kabuto.

However, they were met with a huge shock when they arrived. Instead of finding Kabuto's team, they found team 7 battling a man on a large snake (at least, Naruto thought he was a man – he wasn't sure...), and team 7 were losing badly.

"Shit! We need to help them!" Naruto cried. "You guys try getting them out of here while I distract the snake guy!"

Naruto charged forwards with a loud cry. "Accel!" Suddenly, Naruto put on a burst of speed and reached the man quickly, before sinking his fist into the startled man's face. However, the man turned into mud instead of being blown back!

Naruto heard a sharp cry and spun around. There, he saw that the man had sunk his teeth around Hinata's fore arm. The man tossed Hinata out of the way.

"Damnit, why did you jump in the way!" the man cried before making his way to Sasuke. However, Shino's devil bugs (his red bugs) blocked his way.

"Tch, do you want me to wipe you all out?" he threatened. He was forced to go on the defensive when Naruto, Naruko, Sakura, Sasuke and Shino all began attacking him. Meanwhile, Naruto used Kage Bunshin and told his clone to get some exam proctors – this man that was attacking them was definitely not a genin.

However, even with all five of them attacking him, he was still grinning evilly and easily evading their attacks. _"Damn, this guy is to strong! And he's just messing with us! Kurama, lend me your power!"_

Suddenly, a huge amount of chakra began coming out of Naruto. His nails grew, his eyes turned into the eyes of a fox, his whisker marks thickened and he began to be surrounded by foul, red chakra. With a cry of anger, he burst forwards and began attacking viciously – Kurama's chakra mixed with his Accel had given him a huge boost in ability.

"Sasuke, you're gonna have to use the Mangekyo!" Naruto cried. Sasuke nodded and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they had changed from the traditional Sharingan shape with three tomoe to a black, six-sided star shape – his personal Mangekyo eyes. He also received a huge boost in ability because of this, and slowly they began pushing back the man and the snake.

"Enough! I have entertained you for too long!" the man shouted, before suddenly blowing everyone back. His movements were far faster now, and the group of five could no longer hold him back.

Just as it seemed as if they would be overwhelmed, Naruto's clone came back with backup – a jonin and two chunin proctors. Seeing this, the man didn't fancy his chances.

"Grr! I'll get you sooner or later, Sasuke!" the man said, before rushing off into the thickness of the forest.

The genin were extremely tired from that fight.

"Do you guys even know who that was?" Naruto asked them.

"That was Orochimaru, one of the legendary Sannin," the jonin ninja said, "so you did very well to hold him back that much."

The jonin then ordered the two chunin to do something before giving the two groups round objects each.

"If you see him again, throw this at the ground at it will make a large noise, alerting us. Other than that, continue the exam." With that, he left.

"Are you guys done?" Naruto asked team 7.

"Yes. We've even got a spare earth scroll," Naruko said.

"Nice! Can we have it?" Naruto asked.

"Why should we give it to you?" Sakura asked.

"Well, we did help you – without us you would have lost," Naruto pointed out.

Sakura thought about this for a bit. "Fine, whatever," she said finally.

Sakura's point of view

" _What the hell was that!? Sasuke was amazing with his Sharingan, fighting on par with a Sannin! But that's to be expected. But Naruto, that was NOT expected. Since when was he that strong? And what was that scary, red chakra he started emitting near the end? I thought chakra can't be seen with the naked eye, but that was clearly visible! Are those two really that far ahead of me?"_

Normal point of view

The two teams arrived at the tower together, and after figuring out that they needed to use the scrolls to enter, entered.

After they split up, Naruto turned to Hinata, he asked her, "Are you okay? Did that bite hurt?"

Hinata shook her head. "I can barely feel it anymore." She smiled.

"Let me see it," Naruto demanded. She pulled up her sleeve and gasped when she saw a strange mark where she had been bitten – three tomoe in a similar arrangement to in a Sharingan eye.

"What's that!?" Naruto cried. Hinata just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.

"We should get that seen by Kurenai-sensei," Naruto commented.

Suddenly, Hinata began crying out and clasping her head.

"Hinata! What's wrong!?"

"There's a voice in my head... it's the man's voice... and it hurts!"

 _Damn, this chapter's almost twice as long as usual – chunin exam special. For the final part of the chunin exam (one on one battles), are there any specific pairings you want me to keep (i.e. Sakura vs Ino or Shino vs Zaku)?_

 _Thanks for supporting, please keep the reviews coming (I don't even care if you just say something random like which food you like)._

 _Peace._


	10. Chapter 10

I don't own Naruto.

 **Story**

"She's going to have to stay with us for a few days," the nurse said, "we don't know exactly what to do with her yet."

Naruto nodded and started walking back to his room. After Hinata had suddenly started crying out, he had made a clone and got the clone to find a nurse, who had immediately taken Hinata to a hospital room. _"I hope she's not badly hurt..."_

While he was walking back, he came across a room with its door slightly open. He subconsciously slowed down to see if there was anyone inside, and when he heard some voices, he was about to walk past when he heard a male voice saying, "But no one even tries talking to us. I get that we look a little scary, but seriously, not even one person? What the hell?"

"Well, you should be used to it," said another male, "since we don't have any friends we don't talk to anyone anyway."

"Well, he has a point. None of the competitors even bothered to talk to us a little, but I would have talked if I was in their position." This time, it was a female.

Hearing this, Naruto was reminded of his days before becoming a ninja. _"No one should have to live like I did back then!"_

He walked into the room, pretending that he had accidentally walked into the wrong room.

"Oh! Sorry, wrong room... wait... are you guys participants?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, we're from Otogakure," one of the guys said.

"Oh, I hadn't seen you before in this competition. Actually, I haven't even heard of Otogakure! Where's that?" Naruto asked, feigning ignorance.

"It's a new state that had been made recently north of the Land of Fire. Why do you care?" the other guy asked with a very suspicious look. Naruto saw his look.

"Whoa, calm down! I'm just trying to talk to you! If you don't want me to be here, I'll just go out," Naruto said before getting up. They didn't say anything, but Naruto could see sadness in their eyes when he got up, so he sat back down with a sigh.

"Look, I just want to talk, yeah?" Naruto said.

"But why? Why do you want to talk to _us_?" the first guy said.

"What's wrong with you?" Naruto asked. "Besides, I talk to whoever I want to, and I wanted to talk to you. Anything wrong with that?"

The guys were dumbstruck and the girl shook her head slowly.

"So, what are your names?" Naruto asked.

Slowly, Naruto began to get to know Dosu, Zaku and Kin. They talked about various things, and finally, Naruto decided it was time to go.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow!" Naruto said before he left. However, when he went out he enhanced his hearing.

"That guy... Naruto... you reckon he can be our friend?" Zaku asked the others.

"Well, I definitely like him," Kin said.

Naruto smiled. _"At least they won't feel the pain of being alone anymore."_

Naruto spent the next few days talking to team Dosu. Finally, one day before the final part of the chunin exams were going to begin, Naruto was told that Hinata had been healed, so he went to see her.

However, when he met her, he was surprised.

"Yo, Naruto! What's up?"

Naruto was too shocked to answer.

"What the hell man, I don't bite. Come closer!"

Naruto looked at the nurse with a raised eyebrow.

"We think that her personality suffered when Orochimaru was talking inside her head," the nurse explained. Shino walked in straight after, and was similarly shocked when Hinata greeted him. The two spent the rest of the day trying to get used to Hinata's new personality.

Finally, when they were about to separate to go to sleep, Naruto said, "Are you guys ready for tomorrow?"

"Hell yeah, bring it on!" Hinata cried, and Shino nodded and smiled.

" _Only thing left is to wait for tomorrow."_

Soon enough tomorrow came, and all of the genin that had passed the first part of the exam were lined up in a large training hall, with the Hokage and several jonin facing them.

"First of all, congratulations on making it this far," the Hokage said. "Before we continue, is there anyone who wishes to give up?"

Surprisingly, there was only one – Kabuto, with his excuse being that he couldn't continue.

" _That's bullshit – he can clearly continue! Why is he giving up now?"_

" **Maybe it has something to do with Orochimaru."**

" _Oh yeah, he does smell like him. But maybe it's just a coincidence?"_

" **Don't be stupid. Coincidences never happen in the ninja world."**

" _So are you suggesting that he works for Orochimaru?"_

" **That's very likely."**

" _But then why did he enter the chunin exams?"_

" **Probably to help Orochimaru get those bloody Sharingan eyes."**

" _But Orochimaru wouldn't need help with something that simple! Unless... unless it wasn't that simple!"_

" **Then what is he planning?"**

" _I don't know, but I'm going to warn Ojisan in case anything does happen."_

" **You could spy on the glasses brat."**

" _Not with the chunin exams happening."_

" **Whatever."**

" _Oh crap! I missed what the jonin sensei said!"_

"Okay, please go stand up there," the jonin running the final part of the exams, Hayate Gekko, said. While they were walking up, Naruto turned to Shino.

"What's going on? I didn't catch what he said."

"We are going to have a preliminary round first to reduce the number of participants before the final part of the exam. They will announce the pairings now," Shino explained. Naruto nodded.

"First fight: Sasuke Uchiha versus Yoroi Akado!" Hayate exclaimed, before coughing. The two fighters met at the ring.

"Begin!"

At once, the two rushed at each other and began a taijutsu battle. Sasuke was slowly overwhelming Yoroi with his speed when suddenly, Yoroi covered his hand with chakra and grabbed onto Sasuke's arm. Sasuke was surprised at first, before he quickly pushed him away, but Yoroi began laughing.

"Hah! You're too late! I was able to absorb some of your chakra!" he cried in glee.

Suddenly, Sasuke felt a strong pain in his head as he felt the severe drop in chakra, and he began shaking, almost falling to his knees.

"What the hell... is it already over?" Shikamaru asked.

"No! Sasuke, please don't lose!" Sakura cried out.

Sasuke began falling to the ground. _"Damnit! I lost too much chakra!"_ he thought.

"Hey, Sasuke! What the hell, I could take out that guy in a few seconds! Why are you struggling?" Naruto began taunting him.

"Shut up, Naruto!" Sakura cried out.

"... Idiot," Sasuke murmured, before getting up easily. "I just needed a few seconds to get my head straight, I'm not struggling!" He directed the last bit to Naruto. He then turned to his opponent. "Because you embarrassed me, I'm going to go serious on you!"

When he opened his eyes again, he had activated his Mangekyo Sharingan.

"What the hell! How does he have that!?" Asuma exclaimed in shock. Kurenai and Might Guy were similarly in shock, staring at Kakashi, who just smiled innocently and waved at them.

"Let me show you my personal ability!" Sasuke cried. "Amaterasu!"

Suddenly, black flames appeared on his opponent's arm. He immediately shut off his Sharingan after.

"Aah! It hurts! Stop it!" Yoroi cried. The flames soon burned his whole arm. "Damnit!" he then cut off his arm, screaming all the time. While he was successful in getting rid of the flames, the blood loss was too much for him, and he soon fainted.

"Winner: Sasuke Uchiha!" Gekko exclaimed, before coughing. Sasuke had a smug smile as he returned to his team, and Sakura and Naruko began congratulating him. Naruto just smiled. _"At least he didn't disappoint."_

The next fight was Shino versus Zaku (AN: this fight goes exactly like in the anime).

After Zaku was being stretchered out, Naruto cried out, "Good work, Shino!" Shino smiled and nodded.

When he heard this, Zaku's heart fell. _"Well what did I expect, for him to say, unlucky or something? He doesn't care about me!"_

"And unlucky, Zaku!" Naruto cried. Zaku's eyes widened at this and he looked at Naruto's smiling face. _"This guy..."_ Zaku thought.

The next fight was Misumi versus Kankuro (AN: this fight also goes exactly like in the anime).

"Next fight: Sakura Haruno versus Naruko Uchiha!" Gekko exclaimed, before coughing.

When he said 'Uchiha', many people began whispering stuff along the lines of: "There's another Uchiha? I thought Sasuke was the last!"

"Good luck, Naruko!" Naruto said. Sakura rolled her eyes when she heard this.

"I've noticed that you don't like Naruto," Naruko said to her.

"Obviously! He's just so annoying!" Sakura replied. "He's always asking to go out with me!"

"Has he done that recently?" Naruko asked. Sakura shook her head.

"You know, from the way I see it, you don't even try to get to know him!" Naruko said, slightly angry.

"Begin!"

They rushed towards each other and began having a taijutsu battle.

"Well, why would I want to get to know someone like him?" Sakura shouted as she tried landing a blow.

"Because he's actually a good person!" Naruko cried before landing a huge hit on Sakura's face. Sakura was blown back. When she got back up, she saw that Naruko had activated her Sharingan.

"He's actually a really nice, caring person!" Naruko cried.

"Then why doesn't he act like that!?" Sakura cried, before throwing some kunai.

"Because no one deserves his kindness with the way that they treat him like trash!" Naruko easily avoided the kunai and closed in on Sakura.

"Well, he deserves that! He's always playing pranks, annoying the villagers!"

"He only does that because no one gives him attention! Every one ignores him, so he tries to get attention in any way! Besides, he doesn't do the pranks anymore!" At this, Naruko got to Sakura and landed a combo of punches and kicks. Sakura couldn't stand up anymore, so Gekko declared that the fight was over.

"Why do you care about him so much?" Sakura asked Naruko as she was stretchered off.

"... Because he cares about me. In fact, he cares about the whole village, even you. Can't you at least repay him for that?" Naruko asked Sakura. Sakura was left with these thoughts as she was stretchered off.

"Congrats, Naruko!" Naruto said to her. She smiled and hugged him, before standing next to him to watch the remainder of the fights.

The next fight was Temari versus Tenten (AN: this fight also goes exactly like in the anime).

The next fight was Kin versus Shikamaru (AN: this fight also goes exactly like in the anime).

"Next fight: Rock Lee versus Choji Akimichi!" Gekko exclaimed, before coughing.

"Let's have a good fight!" Lee said to Choji, and Choji nodded.

" _Aah! My eyes hurt! His clothes! What are they made of? Spandex?"_

"Begin!"

The fight was over almost immediately. Lee simply rushed to Choji and, without giving him a chance to retaliate, launched a devastating combo. Choji was out in a few seconds.

" _Whoa, that guy is strong!"_

"Next fight: Neji Hyuuga versus Hinata Hyuuga!" Gekko exclaimed, before coughing.

"Hinata, just give up," Neji said. "Fate has decreed that you will lose, so there's no point in fighting back."

"Shut the hell up! I'm tired of your fate bullshit!" Hinata shouted. Everyone who knew Hinata, including Neji, was stunned. Before Hinata continued, Kurenai stopped her.

"Hinata, I'm afraid you can't use chakra since that would wake up the Cursed Heaven Seal that Orochimaru gave you," she said.

"So I can only use taijutsu?" Hinata asked. Kurenai nodded with an apologetic look on her face. Hinata then surprised everyone by turning to Neji and saying, "You're a lucky bitch. If I was allowed to use ninjutsu I would have wiped your ass!"

Neji couldn't stop staring at her. _"What happened to her? What changed her personality so much?"_ Neji thought.

The fight was over quickly. At first, it seemed like they were evenly matched in the Hyuuga style 'Gentle Fist', but then Neji quickened his pace and finished her off. The fact that he could use chakra to back up his attacks didn't help Hinata.

When the fight was over, Neji said to Hinata, "See? Fate always wins, whether you like it or not. Don't try to fight it."

"Shut up!" Hinata cried as she was stretchered out. "You can go kiss fate's ass, but fate isn't going to do anything to me! I live how I want!"

"Then why didn't you win?" Neji scorned her.

"... I'll show you. When I get this seal sorted, I'll wipe your ass, I'll wipe Hanabi's ass, and then I will become heir. Just wait!"

Naturally, everyone was shocked at this new Hinata.

"Next fight: Naruto Uzumaki versus Dosu Kinuta!" Gekko exclaimed, before coughing.

When the two met each other, Naruto said to Dosu, "Hey, we'll still be friends after this, right?"

Dosu was shocked. _"Friends!? Were we even friends to begin with?"_

"Hey, Dosu! We will, right?"

Dosu nodded shakily.

"Well in that case, let me warn you – I'm not going to hold back!" Naruto shouted. This brought Dosu back to his senses and he grinned back.

"Well, I won't hold back either!"

"Begin!"

 _Yo. I was going to write more for this chapter, but I haven't uploaded for a while – I don't want to keep you waiting. What do you think of Hinata now?_

 _Thank you for all the support – I still have trouble believing that this story has over 100 followers!_

 _Also, thanks to 'my 2 guys', who has commented on every chapter – I really appreciate it!_

 _Finally, I may not upload as frequently from now on for two main reasons – firstly, when I started this story I had loads of ideas but now I have to think more about each chapter, and secondly, I want to make the chapters longer._

 _Other than that, peace._


	11. Chapter 11

I don't own Naruto.

 **Is**

Naruto instantly jumped back and began retreating. _"I've got to find out what he can do first, so I should send in a clone first."_ "Kage Bunshin!"

The clone went to Dosu to engage in a taijutsu battle. As soon as they got close to each other, Dosu took a swing at the clone. The clone dodged it easily, but somehow he was still hit, so he disappeared. When he disappeared, Naruto got the usual rush of new memories from the clone.

" _Wait... what's this!? The clone felt something even though he completely dodged the attack? Does that mean that if he throws a punch, dodging won't help?"_

Naruto made several clones to distract Dosu, and Dosu began quickly taking them all out.

" _In that case, I have two options – either use speed so that he can't even throw a punch, or stay back and attack with ninjutsu. The problem is that I don't know many ninjutsu... guess I'll have to use some of my own techniques, even if they are very taxing."_

"Let's do this!" Naruto cried, before bringing his hands up, palms facing Dosu. Dosu finally finished off the clones and closed in on Naruto.

But it was too late. Lightning created around Naruto's hands immediately shot towards Dosu and hit him, paralyzing him for a few seconds. Naruto used the paralysation to his advantage, immediately shouting, "Accel!" before disappearing and appearing in front of Dosu, launching a devastating combo of punches and kicks.

As soon as Dosu could move again, he swiped at Naruto, but again he was too late, as Naruto had already retreated. Naruto brought his hands up again to perform the same attack.

"I'm not falling for that twice!" Dosu cried out.

"You think you're faster than lightning?" Naruto asked him.

Again, when Naruto fired it, he couldn't dodge it. Naruto repeated the combo he had used previously, and this time, Dosu couldn't get back up, as Naruto had kept on firing lightning blasts through his fists while he hit him. Finally, Dosu dropped to the ground, unable to move.

"Hmph, congratulations, you win," Dosu said to Naruto, barely moving his mouth.

"Yeah, but I know that you're strong. That weird ability you had? If I had rushed in, you would have won," Naruto replied.

"Now that you beat me, you'd better go and win all your matches," Dosu said, before being stretchered off. Naruto was smiling happily as he said this, so he didn't notice the shocked looks he was getting from almost everyone in the room.

" _How did he fire that jutsu without using hand signs!?"_ Kakashi and Asuma were thinking.

" _Since when was he that fast? That's almost as fast as Lee without weights!"_ Might Guy thought.

" _Since when was he that strong!? He didn't show those abilities when we were training!"_ Kurenai thought.

" _Naruto... does this have something to do with that attack?"_ Hiruzen thought.

"Final fight: Gaara of the sand versus Ino Yamanaka!" Gekko exclaimed, before coughing.

"I forfeit!" Ino immediately said.

"Very well. Gaara automatically advances!" Gekko exclaimed, before coughing. "Now, your pairings for the final part of the exams will be announced."

After a short silence, he began announcing the pairings.

"Sasuke Uchiha versus Neji Hyuuga! Shino Aburame versus Kankuro! Naruko Uchiha versus Shikamaru Nara! Temari versus Rock Lee! Naruto Uzumaki versus Gaara!"

" _Damn, I got the hardest opponent right off the bat, AND I don't know what his abilities are!"_

" **You're just going to have to train everything then."**

"The exams will happen a month from now, so you have all of that time to train. That is all!" Gekko exclaimed, coughing all the time.

When Naruto went back to Kurenai, he found Shino talking to her. When she saw Naruto she stopped talking to Shino and turned to Naruto.

"... I'm speechless. Where did you get those techniques from?" she said to Naruto.

"Well... you might not believe this... but I kind of learned them by myself..." Naruto said lamely. Kurenai just stared at him.

"Yep, I don't believe you. Well, I won't order you to tell me how you got those abilities – we've got more important stuff to talk about. You need to find a mentor to teach you during the month. Shino asked me first, so I'm going to teach him. Besides, his style of fighting is more similar to mine than yours is to mine. However, I will ask the Hokage to try to find someone for you, so don't worry."

"Okay, thanks Kurenai-sensei," Naruto said. "I'm going to check up on Hinata. Shino, you coming?"

Shino nodded, and they made their way to the hospital. They talked to Hinata for a while before separating.

" _Okay, so first of all, I need to get myself a sensei..."_

While Naruto was walking around, he came across a perverted man. How did he know he was perverted? Because the man was hiding (badly) behind some bushes, trying to look through the windows of a spa.

"Hey, old man, you know you are not allowed to look through there, right?" Naruto called out to him.

"What? Oh, it's just a brat. Go away," the man said.

" _This guy... I think I should just report him."_

" **Wait! I can sense that this guy is strong for a human."**

" _This guy? How strong?"_

" **Let's see... about the same as that other old man."**

" _Other old man... wait, you mean the Hokage!?"_

" **Yes."**

" _This guy!? Well, let's find out!"_

Naruto rushed to the old man and threw a punch. He gasped when he found that the man had caught his fist – _and the man wasn't even looking!_

"Hey brat, what are you doing?" the man asked.

Naruto didn't answer – he was too busy thinking.

" _An old man, younger than Ojisan, around the same strength? A few people come to mind..."_

"Are you Jiraiya?" Naruto asked him out of the blue.

"Eeehh, so I'm famous!? Haha, well, it's to be expected for someone like me," Jiraiya said.

"I know this is out of the blue, but can you train me for one month?" Naruto asked him.

"What? Why should I do that? I don't even know you!" Jiraiya said.

"But you know my father, Minato!" Naruto said, shocking Jiraiya.

" _How does he know that!? I'm pretty sure Hiruzen-sensei hasn't told him that yet!"_ Jiraiya thought.

"Well?" Naruto asked him. When he looked up at Naruto, he had a serious look on his face.

"How did you find out about your father's identity? Did that old man Hiruzen tell you?" he asked Naruto.

"No. My special guest did," Naruto said, pointing at his belly.

"What! How do you know about that as well!?" Jiraiya cried out.

"He kind of forced me to meet him one day," Naruto said, choosing to not tell him about the attack on him. "So can you train me? I've got the final part of the chunin exams coming up in one month."

"Well... how about this: if you impress me, I'll train you, since I will be staying in Konoha for a while," Jiraiya said.

"Accel!" Naruto shouted, and immediately rushed to Jiraiya. He began trying to hit him, but Jiraiya dodged them all with ease.

" _As expected, I'm going to have to go all out right away!"_

Naruto immediately drew as much of Kurama's chakra as he could handle out.

"Wait! Let's go into the forest. You wouldn't want to attract attention by using that chakra here," Jiraiya said.

Soon, they were facing each other in the forest outside Konoha.

"Let's go!" Naruto cried, before rushing forwards, his speed had greatly increased, and he got close to touching Jiraiya several times, but he still couldn't touch him.

" _Damn! Well, I haven't tested this out, but let's do this!"_

Naruto arched back while he was in the air, and he was suddenly surrounded by lightning in a sphere shape centred on him. Jiraiya was in this sphere, so he was hit by the lightning, paralyzing him for a fraction of a second. While it wasn't much, it enabled Naruto to land a clear hit on Jiraiya's belly. To enhance the attack, he blasted a red liquid out of his hand while he punched, forcing Jiraiya back.

"Whoa! Okay, you pass, so relax," Jiraiya said. Naruto immediately dropped to the ground, too exhausted to even speak. "Whoa, are you that tired? Well, I've got some spare food, so here."

After eating and drinking, some of Naruto's energy returned to him.

"Okay, forget everything else, first I want to know what the hell those attacks were," Jiraiya said.

"Well, it's pretty unbelievable, but I'll get the Kyuubi to show you something first," Naruto said.

Kurama immediately took control over the body and joined Naruto's hand with Jiraiya's hand, before transferring the necessary information. Jiraiya was quiet for a while as he processed the information about Naruto's new ability.

"Okay, so explain those attacks now," Jiraiya finally said.

The lightning attack was created by messing with his nervous system – since the nervous system uses electric impulses to function, Naruto rapidly modified his body to let some electricity out of his hand in the form of an attack.

The second attack was created by messing with his blood vessels – the red stuff had been his blood, which he had forced out by modifying his body.

Both were amazing techniques, but both took up a large amount of chakra. Naruto was only able to use them quickly because of his naturally large chakra reserves and because of Kurama's chakra.

"Alright, now tell me how you found out about your father," Jiraiya said.

"When I visited Kurama he told me," Naruto said. "So you'll train me, right?"

"Yes, but what do you want me to teach you?" Jiraiya asked. Naruto thought for a while.

" _Well, I don't have a finisher attack..."_

" **I can help you with that."**

" _Nice, thanks! So what else... Oh! I know!"_

"Hey, why are you nicknamed the Toad Sage?" Naruto asked Jiraiya.

"Because I have formed a contract with the toads and I learned senjutsu from them."

"Senjutsu? What's that?" Naruto asked.

"It's basically drawing chakra from your natural environment. It has several benefits: it increases your chakra reserves temporarily, it increases your physical abilities and it increases your regeneration," Jiraiya explained.

"Cool! I have got to meet the toads. Can you take me to them?"

"Sure, but not now. Meet me here tomorrow at 8 in the morning," Jiraiya said.

"Why can't we do it now?" Naruto asked.

"Because I have some... business to attend to," Jiraiya said with a perverted smile.

 _As you can tell, I won't be able to update frequently anymore – maybe only once a week. Seriously, thanks for your ideas; I've used several of them in this chapter. Other than that, do you have any ideas for names for the attacks in this chapter?_

 _Peace._


	12. Chapter 12

I don't own Naruto.

 **A**

The next day, Naruto arrived at the spot at 8am and found Jiraiya waiting for him.

"Yo!" Jiraiya said. "Let's get started straight away." Naruto nodded. Jiraiya proceeded to show him exactly what he needed to do to summon the boss toad Gamabunta. Finally, Jiraiya thought that Naruto was ready to try it himself.

"But let me warn you now, you might not get it on your first try," Jiraiya said to Naruto. "In fact, you probably won't."

"Sure, whatever. Have a little more faith in me," Naruto said, before beginning the jutsu. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" he cried, before cutting his hand to draw blood and slamming his hand down. There was a massive bang and his vision was filled with smoke for a while. When the smoke cleared, he was faced by a huge toad with a pipe in his mouth (AN: smokes weed every day).

" _What the hell! The brat did it on his first go! This boy might turn out to be something special,"_ Jiraiya thought.

"Jiraiya! I told you to summon me only when there was a battle going on!" the toad shouted.

"Haha, actually... I didn't summon you," Jiraiya said nervously.

"That's right, I did!" Naruto cried out.

"Huh? And who are you?" the toad looked down at Naruto. _"Wait... is this guy..."_ the toad though.

"I am Naruto Uzumaki, Jiraiya's student for one month!" Naruto said. _"Holy crap, this guy is huge! If I had him on my side I would be able to win loads of battles!"_

"HAH! There's no way a brat like you summoned me!" the toad taunted him.

"What's so surprising about it if my father managed to do it?" Naruto asked with a confused look.

"Your father?" the toad asked, even though he had an idea what Naruto was going to say.

"That's right! Minato Namikaze summoned you, right?" Naruto said.

"So you _are_ Minato's son, huh? So, you want to form a contract?" the toad said.

"Yeah."

"Since you're Minato's son, I'll definitely let you, on the condition that you drink with me," the toad said.

"Sure!" Naruto was excited to try some sake.

"Wait here a bit. By the way my name is Gamabunta." Gamabunta disappeared, and after a few seconds reappeared with a huge bottle of sake and several plates.

"Yo Gamabunta! Can I join in?" Jiraiya asked.

"Fine, whatever."

The three spent the next hour drinking and talking before finally, at the end of the hour, Naruto signed the contract with his blood.

"From now on, feel free to summon us toads whenever you want!" Gamabunta said, before leaving.

"Okay Naruto, you get the rest of the day off since you just signed a contract, which is something big. Besides, I have some... business to attend to," Jiraiya said again with a perverted look. Naruto just rolled his eyes and left to the village.

" _What shall I do now? I have some free time..."_

While he was walking around, Naruto saw a blonde girl carrying a large fan. _"If I remember correctly, her name was Temari... I know! Maybe she can help me relieve my boredom."_

"Yo, Temari!" Naruto cried out. She turned to look at him. _"That guy... Naruto, right?"_ she thought.

"How you doing?" Naruto asked her.

"I'm fine... why?" Temari asked him with a quizzical look in her face.

"Eh, I was bored and I saw you, so I thought why not talk to you," Naruto explained.

"But we don't know each other and we are from different villages! Besides, shouldn't you be training?"

"Nah, my sensei said that we had finished training for today," Naruto said.

"Finished training this early? How do you expect to do well in the exams then?" Temari said with a small smile.

"Well, he did get me to sign a summoning contract, so I guess that is pretty big, you know?" Naruto said with a blank look on his face.

" _What!? He signed a summoning contract!? Who is this 'sensei' he's talking about?"_ Temari thought in shock.

"Anyway, are you free? Because I'm pretty bored now. I could show you around the village if you want," Naruto offered.

" _Heck, whatever. I'm not doing anything anyway,"_ Temari thought. "Sure, whatever," she said.

"Nice! Okay, so first of all, have you had lunch?" Naruto asked her. When she shook her head, Naruto smiled and dragged her to his favourite ramen stand.

"Yo, Teuchi-san! I've got a friend who'll be eating with me," Naruto said to his favourite cook.

" _Friends already?"_ Temari thought, although she wasn't angry about it.

"Oh, nice! Finally a girlfriend!" Teuchi said with a huge smile. Temari immediately gained a huge blush.

"WHAT!? No, I'm not his girlfriend!" Temari shouted, still extremely red in the face.

"Hahaha Teuchi-san, no she's my friend," Naruto said while laughing - he himself also had a slight blush.

"Ah, so you haven't gotten that close yet," Teuchi nodded to himself. "No matter, you'll get there eventually."

Temari again exploded with embarrassment as Naruto started laughing again. Soon, Ayame came with their food. While giving their food out, she winked at Naruto extremely obviously and whispered loudly (so that Temari heard her), "Good luck!"

Temari immediately found her food very fascinating as she looked down at it. While Naruto was eating, he suddenly got an idea. "Yo Temari, wanna have an eating contest to see who can eat the most bowls?"

"What? Why would I do that?" Temari asked.

Teuchi instantly decided to help Naruto. "Hahaha, don't worry Naruto, she's just scared that you will beat her!" he mocked Temari in a joking fashion.

"What!?" His plan worked, as Temari was instantly irritated. Quickly, Ayame joined in.

"It's okay if you give up, Naruto would probably beat you anyway," she said with a smile.

"Hmph, fine! I'll show you for underestimating a kunoichi!" an enraged Temari said.

...

15 minutes later, Naruto was still going. Temari had given up after less than five minutes.

"Does he always eat this much?" Temari asked Ayame, and Ayame smiled.

"Yeah. It's probably because no other restaurant accepts him."

"What!? Why don't they accept him?" Temari asked.

"Well... I'm sorry, I can't tell you..." Ayame said with a sad smile.

" _That sounds just like what happens to Gaara!"_ Temari thought.

Finally, Naruto finished. "Alright! Now let me show you around the village."

They spent the rest of the day walking around the village. Naruto even pulled a small prank for her.

 _Flashback_

"Hey Temari, want me to show you why I'm called the Prank King?" Naruto had asked her.

"Prank King? Sure!" Temari said with an amused smile. Naruto then led her to a corner of one street and hid on top of a nearby tree. He then pulled out some prank material out of nowhere.

"Okay. So if the person goes to the right, nothing will happen to them because I'm right-handed, but if they go to the left, I'll warn them once, and if they don't listen they get pranked," Naruto explained.

"Okay..." Temari said with an amused smile. "So what's the prank?"

"You'll see," Naruto said.

Soon, the first person walked past. Since she had turned right, Naruto did nothing to her. The next person, however, turned left. Naruto began warning him. "Turn back and turn right, or you will meet your doom!" Somehow, his voice sounded like it had come from everywhere. The man ignored him and carried on walking. Suddenly, a cat ran in front of him, causing him to fall on a nearby box, which was filled with mud and leaves. As the man cursed and ran off, Naruto said, "You were warned."

Temari was laughing so hard she almost fell off the tree. "Tell me how you did that!" she said excitedly.

Naruto began explaining his master plan. "First I made some clones, which all hid somewhere down this alley. They spoke at the same time as me, which is why my voice sounded like it was coming from everywhere. When the man walked down, one of my clones used Henge to turn into a cat and ran in front of him, causing him to fall into the box that I had prepared. Neat, huh?"

They kept on pranking people for a while before they went back to the Naruto tour.

 _Flashback over_

It was evening, and Naruto was taking Temari to his favourite spot in the whole village – the head statues of all of the Hokage, specifically the Fourth Hokage's head. When they got there, Naruto sat down on his father's head and looked at the village below.

"It's beautiful!" Temari gasped.

"This is where I used to go when I couldn't bear the sadness and loneliness anymore," Naruto said sadly to himself. Temari heard him.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask you something all day. That girl in the ramen shop said that you get rejected by most shops in the village. Why is that?" Temari asked him.

"Well, before I became a ninja I didn't know. They would call me the demon boy and ignore me, and some would even attack me. I kind of accidentally discovered why they treat me like that, but I don't want to tell you because... I don't want to lose your friendship now that I've just got it."

Temari stared at him. _"Is Naruto...?"_

She remained quiet for a while before finally saying, "Naruto, are you a Jinchuuriki?"

Naruto turned around rapidly. "How did you know!?"

"Because my brother Gaara is one, and the village treats him the same way they treat you," Temari explained. "But what I don't get is... how are you still cheerful after all you've been through? Gaara has already cracked, even if I do say so myself, and you're no different. So how do you still remain cheerful?"

Naruto smiled. "Because I have people who care about me. Because I have people that I'm willing to die for."

Temari remained silent for a while as she took this in. After a while, she said, "I've got to go now, it's getting pretty late. Thanks for showing me around, it was fun."

Naruto nodded. "Maybe we can go out some other day too."

Temari stared at him with a blush creeping up on her face. _"He doesn't realize that it sounds as if we went on a date!"_ she thought. "Yeah, maybe... goodbye, Prank King!" she said with a smile.

"See ya in the exams!" Naruto said.

 _Yo. Do you guys want Kurama to be male (like in the anime) or female and part of the harem? I'm probably going to make a poll so check it out and vote if you want._

 _Peace._


	13. Chapter 13

I don't own Naruto.

 **Very**

The next day, Naruto was standing in front of Jiraiya in the forest.

"Okay. I know that you are good at taijutsu, so we won't focus on taijutsu," Jiraiya said. "How many jutsu do you know?"

"Not many, since I mainly just focused on my special abilities," Naruto said.

"Hmm. Okay, are there any specific jutsu you want to learn?" Jiraiya asked Naruto.

"Yeah, I want a jutsu to trap my opponent and a wide-range jutsu," Naruto said.

"Let's see… I can teach you Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld for the trapping jutsu, and for the wide-range jutsu… Ah, I know! You can make use of your partnership with the toads now!"

"How do I do that?"

"I will teach you the jutsu Toad Oil Bullet, and if you use that at the same time as one of the toads using Fire Release: Flame Bullet, you can create a huge fireball. Is that good?"

"Nice! When are we going to start training?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Hahaha well you're excited. Since you're so eager, we'll start with the first jutsu straight away," Jiraiya said with a smile.

"Nice, let's do this!" Naruto shouted, and they began training.

They kept training this jutsu for a few days until Naruto had finally gotten it down.

"Finally! Well, you haven't really taken long, but still, that was boring!"

Naruto ignored his idle talk. "So what are we going to do now?"

"Hahaha no, calm down for now. You get the rest of the day off, you've been working hard. Besides I-" Jiraiya was cut short by Naruto.

"-Have business to attend to, yeah, I know," Naruto said with a wry smile as he walked off. "I'll see you tomorrow then," Naruto waved goodbye.

" _So what shall I do now… I'll go check up on Hinata."_

" **Not so fast. I need to teach you that finisher jutsu."**

" _Oh yeah! Let's do this."_

Naruto went back into the forest.

" **This jutsu is the ultimate attack of all the Tailed Beasts, but it is very simple. All you must do is gather chakra in your hands, form a ball with it, compress it, then release it in the form of an explosion. It's called the Tailed Beast Ball."**

" _Huh. This is really easy!"_ Naruto thought while gathering up chakra.

" **Hah! That's because you're gathering nowhere near enough chakra!"**

" _Then how much do I need?"_

" **Hmm… about 20 times the amount that you have gathered."**

" _What the hell!? Well, it's still not that hard."_

The ball in Naruto's hand was roughly the size of his head and blue in colour.

" **Now comes the hard bit – compress it until it's about a quarter the size of that."**

Naruto tried and instantly failed.

" **I told you this is the hard bit. It will probably take you 20 days to complete this if you train every night."**

" _What the hell!? Fine, whatever. How powerful is this anyway?"_

" **Well, with the amount you're using now, you could beat a man of that snake's level with 3 or 4 hits."**

" _What! Seriously?"_

" **Yeah, but that's nothing. If I made one, I could wipe out this whole village."**

Naruto was speechless for the rest of the night as he practiced.

For the next few days, Naruto trained with Jiraiya in the mornings and afternoons and with Kurama at night. On the 15th day of the month, Jiraiya told him that he got the day off.

" _Nice! Okay Kurama, sorry, but I'm gonna have to skip training."_

" **I don't care, do what you want."**

" _I'll go check up on Hinata then."_

While walking to the hospital, Naruto took a detour to see how Shino was getting on. He found him training with Kurenai in training ground 8.

"Yo, Shino! Hello, Kurenai-sensei!" Naruto greeted them.

"Hello Naruto," Kurenai smiled at him. Shino nodded. "How's your training going?" Kurenai asked Naruto. "I heard that you found a very good teacher."

"Yeah, my teacher is Jiraiya."

"Jiraiya of the Sannin!?" Kurenai gasped.

"Hahaha yeah, that's him," Naruto laughed.

"Surely your training is going very well then?" Kurenai asked him.

"Eh, I guess, I've learned a few jutsu and my taijutsu has improved. What about you, Shino?" Naruto turned to Shino.

"I won't reveal anything, but my training is going pretty well," Shino said.

"Correction – his training is going very well," Kurenai said with a smile.

"That's nice. Well, I'll be going now, see ya!" With that, Naruto left the two to train.

When Naruto walked into Hinata's room, he found her talking with her father Hiashi. The two turned to look at him when he entered.

"Oh… have I come at the wrong time?" Naruto asked.

"No, I will be going now. Hinata, we will talk about this later," Hiashi said, giving her a stern stare before walking out.

"… What was that about?" Naruto asked her.

She sighed. "I'll tell you later. Anyway, how are things?"

"Good, I'm getting trained by Jiraiya of the Sannin and Kurenai-sensei is training Shino," Naruto told her. She just stared at him. Finally, she spoke.

"Trust you to find one of the Sannin to train you," she said. Naruto began laughing.

"I know right? But you know, he's nothing like you'd expect."

"What do you mean?"

"He's actually a massive pervert."

"What? Seriously? Wow, unlucky you," she said.

"Yeah, but at least I've learned some pretty dope jutsu."

"Nice! Tell me about them."

Naruto shook his head with a smile. "You'll have to see on the day."

"Damn you. And I'm stuck in here sleeping my ass off," Hinata complained.

"When are they gonna discharge you?" Naruto asked her.

"I don't know, but they said it will be before the final part of the chunin exams, so I can come to watch you beat up everyone else," she said with a grin.

" _Whoa, Hinata is so much easier to talk to."_

"So what was up with your dad?" Naruto asked her.

"I wanna prove to my clan that I'm worthy of being the heiress by beating Neji in front of them all, but I can't because I need to use ninjutsu to do that, and this damn curse stops me from doing that," Hinata said while pointing at the Curse Seal on her arm.

Naruto began thinking. Finally, he looked up. "Hey Hinata, I reckon Jiraiya can fix that because he is a seal master. Want me to ask him?"

"You bet I do! If he does it, I'll o any one thing you want me to do!" Hinata said with stars in her eyes. Naruto laughed.

He spent the rest of the day talking to Hinata. Finally, when he was about to leave, Hinata grabbed his arm.

"What?" Naruto asked her.

She looked down. "Erm… you know when I said I would do anything for you, I meant literally anything, right?"

"Wait,what?" Naruto asked with a confused look.

"Just cuz I have this seal, doesn't mean my feeling towards you have changed, you know," Hinata said, looking up with a slight blush.

Hearing this, Naruto gained a huge blush. _"Oh yeah! She had confessed her love to me! I totally forgot about that!"_

Hinata pushed him. "Go. Focus on the exams for now, we can talk after you beat everyone up," she said with a smile before steering him out of her room and shutting the door. Naruto stayed where he was for a while before finally going back home. _"She's right, I need to focus on the exams first. Just you wait, Hinata, I'll storm the whole test!"_

Hinata's point of view

" _What the hell do you mean, 'focus on your exams'? You were totally embarrassed! You just said that so that he wouldn't see your blush!"_

Hinata sighed with a slight blush on her face, before sinking into her bed.

" _Besides, you've got more important stuff to think about…"_

 _Yo. I'm really sorry for the very late upload. It's probably gonna be like this for the next month or so (I'm really busy) so please bear with me._

 _As always, thanks for everything – thanks to_ _'Flamingpheonixlbj2' for giving me the name for Naruto's lightning attack (Impulse), thanks to everyone who voted and thanks to everyone in general._

 _Final thing – I have several MASSIVE twists that I bet none of you will be expecting, try guessing if you want, if you get any right then you get... a pat on the back (which is what everyone wants XD)._

 _Peace._


	14. Chapter 14

I don't own Naruto.

 **Cool**

 _Hey, I just wanted to reply to a guest who thinks that Sakura should have beaten Naruko – Naruko has the Sharingan. She's already better than most of the rookies just with that. Also, she actually takes training seriously, unlike Sakura (who is all brains and fan girl at this point in time) so she is physically stronger than Sakura. Finally, before Naruto Shippuden, Sakura is absolutely useless (seriously, think of one time in which she was useful) so she would obviously lose to Naruko. Be realistic._

After his one-day rest, Naruto had continued his training with Jiraiya and had learned a few other simple jutsu. His training with Kurama, however, wasn't going as well – he still hadn't completed the jutsu. One good thing did come out of his training though.

 _Flashback_

" _Yo Kurama, I'm going to try to hit a tree now."_

" **Try, but let me warn you that it's not ready yet."**

Naruto ignored this and tried hitting a tree with his incomplete Chakra Ball, but when he swung his arm, the air resistance caused the Chakra Ball to lose its shape and disappear. Well, it lost its shape, but the chakra didn't disappear – it moved back to coat his arm instead.

" **You didn't have enough control over it so it lost its shape."**

" _Grr! Guess I'll have to keep training."_

While Naruto was walking, he felt a strong breeze around his legs, and when he looked down he realized that his chakra-coated arms were creating small breezes just by him swinging them.

" _I see! So it raises my physical capabilities! I'm guessing if I condense the chakra even more, it will work better."_

Naruto condensed the chakra so much that it disappeared, but he felt his arms become stronger. He smiled at this.

" **Hey brat, try using my chakra."**

When Naruto condensed some of Kurama's chakra into his arms, his arms began turning slightly red. Seeing this, Naruto sent a large amount of Kurama's chakra to his arms, causing them to turn totally red.

" _Cool! I can turn red! I'll call this 'red mode'."_

 _Flashback over_

Anyway, Naruto was walking around in the village when he spotted Kin and Zaku walking quickly towards the exit of the village, so he called out to them. When they turned, their faces lit up with genuine smiles before returning to their serious faces.

"What's up guys?" Naruto asked them.

"I'm sorry Naruto, we can't really talk now, we're in a hurry," Kin said.

"Ah, okay. Well, stay safe, yeah? And make sure to come to the finals to watch me beat everyone up!" Naruto waved to them.

While they were walking away, Zaku said to Kin, "We can stay with him for a bit, can't we?" After a little debating, they decided to spend one hour with Naruto messing around, doing pranks and having a good time.

When they were about to leave, Kin said, "Thanks for everything, Naruto."

"Yeah, I'll never forget my first true friend," Zaku said with a smile, before they walked off.

Naruto didn't see the tears falling from Kin's eyes, or Zaku's bitter smile.

...

Naruto spent the rest of the month training. On the day before the exam, Jiraiya told Naruto to rest.

"What, you have some business to attend to?" Naruto asked with a cheeky smile.

"Yeah, but this time it's serious," Jiraiya said with a serious face. "It's about my former teammate, Orochimaru."

"What's he gonna do?" Naruto asked with a worried look.

"We think he's going to attack the exams," Jiraiya said darkly.

"Well then isn't it dangerous to keep the exams going!?" Naruto asked incredulously.

"Don't worry; we've got this under control. You just focus on the exams!" Jiraiya said with a smile.

"Sure!"

 **Finals day**

All the contestants were lined up in a large space with a huge crowd watching them, making lots of noise cheering and talking in general. Shortly after the Hokage and the Kazekage arrived, a jonin walked to the participants and signalled for the crowd to quieten down.

"Welcome to the finals. I, Genma Shiranui, will be the proctor for your exams because the original couldn't make it. The finals carry the same rules as the preliminaries. We will begin immediately, so Sasuke Uchiha and Neji Hyuuga, you two wait down here while the others go up."

As a side note, he said, "Make sure to entertain the crowd, yeah?" but only so that the participants heard him.

Soon enough, the fight was about to begin.

"Begin!" Genma shouted before jumping back.

The two rushed towards each other and began a fierce taijutsu battle. Since Neji couldn't look into Sasuke's eyes (otherwise he would be caught in a genjutsu), he couldn't fully dodge all of Sasuke's attacks, and Sasuke was using his Sharingan to dodge Neji's attacks. Realizing he was at a disadvantage, Neji jumped back, but Sasuke chased him, a smile creeping onto his lips.

" _He's retreating already! I've won this!"_ Sasuke thought.

Just when Sasuke got to Neji, Neji shouted, "Kaiten!" and began spinning around rapidly, ejecting chakra from his body. Sasuke was forced to retreat.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball jutsu!" Sasuke shouted before blowing out a large quantity of fire from his mouth.

Neji countered it by thrusting both his hands out. "Eight Trigrams Vacuum Wall Palm!" he cried, and a blast of chakra from his hands hit the fireball, causing the two jutsu to cancel each other out.

When the smoke cleared, Neji had disappeared.

" _Where is he!?"_ Sasuke thought anxiously, before detecting Neji behind him. He quickly spun around, but it was too late.

"Gentle Fist Art One Body Blow!" Neji struck Sasuke several times with his palms, causing Sasuke to fly back and hit the wall. When the smoke cleared, however, Sasuke had gone.

"Hah! That won't work on me!" Neji shouted, before jumping to the side just as Sasuke rushed to him from behind.

Sasuke was so shocked that he couldn't react fast enough when Neji performed a counter attack, unleashing a deadly combo. Sasuke was blown back again, and this time when he stood up his legs shook a bit.

"Just give up. Fate has decreed that you won't win," Neji said with a cocky smile.

"You know what? Hinata was right, go shove your fate bullshit up your ass! I have an ambition that I must complete; I have something that I need to fight for. What do you have? Nothing!"

"Hah! How naive you are! I have felt pain that you have not felt. I have been looked down upon simply because of the age of my father, despite the fact that I am considered a prodigy. Of course I would be stronger than you, when I carry a burden like that!"

"You wanna talk about pain!? Well then, have you felt the pain of being alone? Have you felt the pain of watching your whole family being killed!? HAVE YOU FELT THE PAIN OF HAVING YOUR TRUST IN THE PERSON YOU LOVED MOST BREAK!?" By now Sasuke was livid.

"Don't talk to me about pain! Amaterasu!" Sasuke activated his Mangekyo, and Neji's arm immediately caught on fire.

He began screaming from the pain, and after his entire family insisted that he gave up, he gave up. Sasuke got rid of the black flames before walking away. Just before he went off, he stopped and turned to Neji.

"You think you know all about fate? Let me tell you this: I know more about it than you, and I know for sure that it can be changed."

"Winner: Sasuke Uchiha!" Genma announced, before the crowd went crazy. The other participants began congratulating Sasuke, especially Naruko and Naruto, and Sakura, Ino and Kakashi came to congratulate him as well.

"Next fight: Shino Aburame versus Kankuro of the Sand!" The two walked down and faced each other.

"Begin!"

The two remained where they were as they each began thinking of a plan. Finally, Kankuro made the first move, rushing towards Shino. Shino extended his arms, and a number of bugs flew towards Kankuro and latched onto him. After a while, they flew back, but Kankuro was perfectly fine.

"What!?" Shino said in shock.

"Hahaha! Looks like your bugs don't work!" Kankuro gloated before charging once again. Shino couldn't keep up with him in a taijutsu battle, so he kept retreating.

"Is retreating all you know?" Kankuro mocked him.

"Damnit, Shino! Beat him up already!" Naruto cried out from the crowds. "I know you can!"

Shino looked up, and seeing Naruto's determined face gave him an idea. He extended his arms again, but this time only a few bugs came out. In fact, they were so few in number that Kankuro lost sight of them.

" _Well, they were only a few so it doesn't matter,"_ Kankuro thought.

Shino then swung his arms out wide, and unleashed a huge number of bugs to the right. They flew in a circular motion before heading straight for Kankuro. Kankuro suddenly realized something and narrowed his eyes.

"It's a genjutsu! Kai!" Kankuro cried, and the genjutsu was expelled. However, he found that another large group of bugs was heading to him from the left.

"This again? ... Wait, it's another genjutsu! Kai!" Kankuro expelled the second jutsu and found himself back in reality. Suddenly, he felt his energy leave him, and he collapsed.

"What!? How did you do this?" Kankuro asked Shino feebly.

"Simple. When my first bugs attacked you, I realized that you were hiding inside another of your dolls. I released a small number of bugs to infiltrate that defence, and then I distracted you by making the genjutsu," Shino explained.

All of the jonin were thinking the same thing: _"Incredible! That's some jonin-level thinking!"_

" _Shino... you really have gotten stronger!"_

"Winner: Shino Aburame!" The crowd erupted yet again. While this fight wasn't as intense as the one before it, they were all amazed by Shino's thinking ability.

Naruto and Kurenai immediately began to congratulate him.

"You'd better not disappoint!" Kurenai said with a slight smile to Naruto.

Naruto nodded vigorously. "Don't worry!"

"Next fight: Naruko Uchiha versus Shikamaru Nara!"

 _Yo. Don't have anything to say apart from thanking you for supporting this story. Keep bringing the new ideas – they are actually useful!_

 _Peace._


	15. Chapter 15

I don't own Naruto.

 **Attempt**

"Good luck Naruko!" Naruto shouted. "Show me how strong you've gotten!"

Naruko smiled at him with her thumbs up before walking down.

"Shikamaru! Show them the strength of team 10!" Ino shouted. Shikamaru just rolled his eyes and walked down.

" _Should I forfeit?"_ Shikamaru thought. _"You know what, I'll try to put on a good show."_

"Begin!"

The two remained standing for a while before Naruko rushed in and tried to land a hit on Shikamaru. Shikamaru jumped back and brought his hands out. "Shadow Imitation Technique!" Shikamaru's shadow began rushing to Naruko, so Naruko was forced to jump back to avoid the shadow.

" _Damnit! I can't get close because of that!"_ Naruko thought. "Fire Release: Fireball jutsu!" She spat out a small ball of fire at Shikamaru, but he countered it quickly.

"Earth Release: Practice Brick Technique!" The wall blocked the fireball, but when the smoke cleared, she had gone. Suddenly, he heard a voice behind him.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball jutsu!" This time, the fireball was much bigger, and Shikamaru's wall couldn't stop all of it so he took some damage.

" _Since when could she do a jutsu on that level!?"_ Shikamaru thought.

"Lucky! I just learned that from watching Sasuke's fight with my sharingan active! The sharingan is really overpowered!" Naruko commented.

" _What the hell...Damn, I need to think of a plan,"_ Shikamaru thought.

Naruko closed in and they began a taijutsu battle, in which Naruko dominated easily.

"Hey, can't you put up more of a fight for the crowd at least?" Naruko asked him.

"... Heh, fine."

Shikamaru retreated rapidly and brought out several kunai.

" _Kunai? That won't work."_

He then placed some explosive tags on them and launched them at Naruko, before making them explode in front of them.

"Water Release: Water Wall Formation!" Naruko breathed out some water which blocked the attack, causing the water to evaporate. Before all of the steam could clear, Shikamaru began his attack.

"Shadow Imitation Technique!" The shadow was helped by the steam, and the shadow quickly got Naruko.

" _Damnit! I don't want to lose yet!"_ Naruko thought.

However, Shikamaru then raised his hands and forfeited.

"What!? Why did you forfeit?" Naruko asked him.

"After I had caught you, there was no other thing I had up my sleeve. Besides, it's getting too troublesome."

After a short silence, Hayate announced the results. "Winner: Naruko Uchiha!"

The crowd went wild when they heard 'Uchiha'.

" _God Damnit! I didn't deserve to win that!"_ Naruko thought as she walked back to the other participants.

"So what?" Naruto said to her, guessing what she was thinking. "Just prove your true strength in the next round!"

Naruko looked up at him with stars in her eyes and a determined look. "Of course!"

"Next fight: Temari of the Sand versus Rock Lee!"

The two walked down to the arena.

" _It's the spandex taijutsu guy! Let's see how strong he is."_

"Begin!"

Lee rushed to Temari straight away, catching her off guard and striking her several times. She quickly jumped back and brought out her large fan.

" _I have no chance in beating him in taijutsu so I'll stick to long-ranged jutsu,"_ Temari thought. She swung her fan and created strong winds that began pushing Lee back.

"Dust Wind Technique! Wind Release: Air Current Wild Dance!" Temari kept on barraging him with strong wind attacks so that he couldn't move, and soon he dropped to his knees.

"Lee!" Might Guy shouted. "You can't win this without getting serious!"

"Guy-sensei! Then do I have permission to remove them?" Lee shouted back.

"Yes! Remove the weights and show everyone the power of youth!" Guy shouted with his thumbs up.

"Finally! It's time for Konoha's Green Beast to show his true colours!" Lee exclaimed, before rolling his sleeves and trousers up. There were four weights there strapped to his body, which he took off before jumping in the air and throwing the weights down.

" _Hah! What are a few weights gonna do?"_ Temari thought.

When the weights landed, they made a huge explosion.

" _What the hell!? What kind of weight are those?"_ Temari thought. However, she didn't have enough time to think of anything else, as Lee had disappeared and appeared behind her.

" _So fast!"_

The fight ended straight after that, with Temari unable to lift a single finger.

"Winner: Rock Lee!" The crowd went super crazy at the sight of some of the best taijutsu they would ever see.

" _That guy is crazy strong as well! He's as fast as me when I'm using Accel!"_

"Next fight: Gaara of the Sand versus Naruto Uzumaki!"

" _Here comes my big moment..."_

 _Yo. Sorry for the short chapter but I want Naruto's fight to be in a separate chapter since more is going to happen._

 _One thing I really want to know – are the fight scenes good? Did I make them exciting/ realistic/ short/ bad? Please do tell me where I can improve. Thanks._

 _Peace._


	16. Chapter 16

I don't own Naruto.

 **At**

 _Warning – this chapter will get bloody and deviate heavily from canon at the end._

As Naruto walked down the stairs, he began hearing less and less until all he could hear was his own heartbeat. Unconsciously, he matched his steps with each beat, and realized that he was walking very slowly since his heart was beating at an agonizingly slow speed.

" _I don't even feel nervous... what's going on?"_

Then he heard a voice from the crowd shouting, "Naruto! Show me how you're gonna wipe their asses!" He looked up and saw that it was Hinata, sitting next to her father.

" _Hinata... so you came..."_

"Naruto! Show those villagers what you're made of!" Naruto turned around.

" _This time it is Naruko..."_

One by one, the Konoha genin began cheering for Naruto. Even Shino began cheering.

" _Huh, what is this... what's this strange feeling inside of me...?"_

The crowd got louder with each step he took.

" **That feeling is relief, kid."**

" _Relief? Why would I be feeling relief?"_

Even the jonin began cheering.

" **Kid, what are those baby ninja doing?"**

" _They're cheering for me. Why?"_

He was now standing face to face with Gaara.

" **... You idiot, work it out yourself. Why would they be cheering for** _ **you**_ **?"**

" _... I don't know..."_

"Are you ready?" Hayate asked Naruto and Gaara.

" **... It's because they acknowledge you, idiot."**

"Begin!" Hayate shouted, before jumping back.

" _... That's right... they acknowledge me! That's why I can't let them down!"_

Naruto remembered promising Teuchi and Ayame to become Hokage, and this caused him to realize one thing.

" _I always used to run around screaming how I would make everyone acknowledge me... but the truth is that I always have been acknowledged by some people, I just didn't see it..."_

" **And now's your chance to make everyone acknowledge you. Don't let this chance go away!"**

" _Of course! Let's do this, Kurama!"_

Finally, Naruto opened his eyes and stared at Gaara fiercely.

Gaara had been getting bored just standing still, but when he saw Naruto's determined look, he realized that the fight was about to start. "What, you're finally going to start?" he asked Naruto.

Naruto didn't answer his question. Instead, he brought his hands out and extended them quickly to the side.

"Red Mode!" Naruto's entire body turned a demonic red, and his blonde hair began turning slightly orange. Kurama's chakra began surrounding his body as well, and soon, the Kyuubi's chakra began to circle roughly around Naruto, creating strong breezes which whipped at his clothes.

Gaara's eyes widened. _"This chakra! It's too vile to be his! This chakra... it must be!"_

"Naruto Uzumaki... so you're the same as me, huh?" Gaara said to Naruto with a smirk.

"That's right. Not only that, mine is stronger than yours, so you can't beat me unless you go all out!" Naruto shouted at him.

"Very well then! I will show you the difference in our strength!" Suddenly, Gaara began grinning manically, and as he brought his hands up, sand from the ground began rising to form a giant hand the size of a human.

"Hm. So you have the ability to control sand?" Naruto narrowed his eyes.

...

Meanwhile, the people watching were astonished.

"... What the hell Kurenai, since when did you have a monster like that on your team? He's got perfect control over the Kyuubi's chakra!" Kakashi said as he turned to Kurenai. Guy and Asuma had similar expressions, but what surprised them was that Kurenai had that expression as well.

"Honestly... he's never shown that level in our training, so I have no idea." Kurenai was lost for words.

"Who was his teacher during the one month?" Asuma asked.

"... It was Jiraiya of the Sannin," Kurenai said. The jonin were all shocked at this, but they nodded in understanding.

"If it was Jiraiya-san then there is no doubt that he helped Naruto control the Kyuubi," Guy said.

The genin were more confused, as they didn't know (and still don't know) that Naruto was a Jinchuuriki.

"What is that vile chakra?" Neji asked, his Byakugan activated. Lee nodded in agreement, staring wide-eyed at Naruto.

"To think that he was this strong all along..." Lee muttered.

Sakura was the most shocked. As she stared at Naruto in his demonic form, she remembered some of what Naruko had said about Naruto in their fight. _"Is this his way of showing me that he's moved on? That he no longer loves me? That he's going to take being a ninja seriously?"_

Of course, Shino, Naruko and Sasuke already knew, so they kept calm.

...

Down on the battlefield, the two were staring at each other. Suddenly, Naruto shot forward, leaving a trail of red chakra behind him. Gaara quickly brought his hands up, and the sand formed a wall just before Naruto smashed his fist into it.

"You're fast, I'll give you that, but you can't beat my impenetrable defence!" Gaara said gleefully.

Naruto just smirked. "I'm not done yet," he muttered, before shouting, "Shock Fist!" causing the sand near his fist to be blown away by a shock wave which had emerged from his fist. Gaara was blown back.

"What!? Gaara was blown back!?" Kankuro said in shock, as Temari watched with her mouth wide open.

"How did you do that?" Gaara said while getting up, since that was the first time he had been injured.

Naruto smirked. There was no way he was giving out his secrets.

(AN: time for a biology lesson) The heart pumps the blood around the body by generating huge pressure after every contraction, and this pressure travels through the blood vessels, taking the blood with it. Naruto moved one of these blood vessels – an artery – to his palm and created a hole on his palm so that when the heart contracted, the pressure would travel through the artery and out of the hole Naruto created on his palm, creating a shockwave as it came into contact with the air and blowing anything nearby away.

"At any rate, Mother says that she wants to see your blood, so you won't survive!" Gaara said as he began to lose his mind. He began waving his hands around madly, and the sand followed, attacking Naruto from all sides. Naruto easily dodged the sand.

"Who's Mother?" Naruto asked him as he dodged the sand.

"Mother is my strength!" Gaara shouted madly, pointing at his stomach.

" **Hah! What a baby. He calls Shukaku (the Ichibi) 'Mother'."**

"Why do you listen to everything your Mother tells you to do?" Naruto asked.

"Because... If I didn't... wait, what does it matter!?" Gaara shouted at him. "You should be trying to kill me!"

"What!? Why should be trying to kill you!?" Naruto shouted in outrage.

"We are enemies! That is enough reason!" Gaara shouted back.

"No it isn't! And anyway, if you think like that, then we can just become friends!" Naruto shouted at him as he rushed forwards.

Gaara suddenly stopped when Naruto said the word 'friends'.

" _What!? We can be... friends!?"_ Gaara thought. _"No! There's no way!"_

"Hah! There's no way we could be friends!" Gaara resumed his shouting.

This time Naruto stopped. "Why not?" he said innocently.

"You're kidding, right?" Gaara said. "Why would you want to be friends with a monster like me?"

"Gaara!" Naruto said seriously, "You're not a monster! Stop thinking like that!"

"Yes I am! I'm a monster that is avoided by everyone because I don't hesitate to kill!" Gaara shouted.

Naruto went quiet and looked down, shadows covering his eyes.

"... Well, if that's what it takes to be a monster, then I am definitely a monster," Naruto said quietly.

Gaara looked at him quizzically.

"After all, I am avoided without even having to do anything..."

"What!? Why would they avoid you without you doing anything?" Gaara asked, forgetting that the same thing happened to him in his childhood.

"... I don't know," Naruto answered. Then he looked up directly into Gaara's eyes. "But I was hoping that at least someone who's been through the same as me wouldn't avoid me."

Hearing this, Gaara gasped. _"He's being serious!"_ Gaara thought in surprise. He was about to open his mouth to say something, when he suddenly heard a loud voice in his head.

" **KILL HIM! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!"**

" _Mother! Please, not him! He's the only one that can understand me!"_

" **NO! KILL HIM! OR YOU DIE!"**

Shukaku kept on shouting, making Gaara crouch and grab his head in pain.

"Gaara! You okay?" Naruto asked him. Gaara didn't answer, so Naruto walked closer.

"Hey Gaa- What!?" Suddenly, a large amount of sand came from the gourd on Gaara's back and covered Gaara. Naruto was forced to move back. When the sand stopped moving, Gaara's arms, torso and part of his face were covered in sand with strange blue markings covering the sand.

" **Hohoho, the brat is better than expected. That's a partial Tailed Beast Transformation, Version 2, better than you can do."**

" _What!? He's taking it that seriously?"_

...

Meanwhile, Kankuro and Temari began panicking.

"What's he doing!? The signal hasn't been released yet!" Baki, their instructor, asked them fiercely.

"We don't know!" Temari said in panic.

"God Damnit!" Baki complained while looking around. When he caught sight of someone, he gasped.

...

On the opposite side of the stadium, Kabuto was watching the scene with an angry look. "Guess we're going to have to start immediately," he muttered to himself, before signalling to Baki on the other side then to the rest of the forces.

Suddenly, there was an explosion in the Hokage's box, and the smoke covered the box. Everyone gasped and went quiet.

At the same time, Kabuto began the attack, saying, "Temple of Nirvana Technique." Immediately, people began to drop as they began to get affected by a genjutsu which caused them to go to sleep. All of the ninja quickly dispelled the genjutsu, but found themselves surrounded by ninja from Suna and Oto.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "A joint attack between Suna and Oto? Just like Jiraiya-sensei predicted."

"Kakashi!" Guy said to him.

"What?"

"Let's see who can beat the most ninja!" Guy said to him happily as he began battling.

"Hah, there's no way I would take part in something that childish. We need to protect the village, not play around."

"I'm already on 6!" Guy said cheerfully.

"What!? I can't lose to you!" In just a moment, Kakashi changed his mind and began competing with Guy.

"Hah, trust Guy to turn this into a competition," Asuma said with a smirk. "Hey you two, I'm joining in!"

"Honey! Seriously! Anyway, do you think the Hokage is alright?" Kurenai said as she began fighting.

"Well, he's the Hokage for a reason, so don't worry. Besides, he's got Jiraiya with him," Kakashi said.

...

It was safe to say that Naruto was confused. Gaara does a partial transformation, the Hokage's box explodes, then Konoha ninja get attacked by other ninja.

"Gaara, what's going on?" he asked. But Gaara was in no mood to answer. With greatly increased speed, Gaara rushed towards Naruto and swiped with his huge hands. Naruto ducked rapidly, and he felt the air above him blow strongly from Gaara's attack.

" _An increase in physical capabilities? Nice! Wait, now's not the time to admire enemies! Kurama, any idea what's going on?"_

" **The snake guy is attacking."**

Gaara kept on relentlessly attacking Naruto.

" _He's lost his mind!"_

"Gaara! If you can hear me, stop it!" Naruto shouted.

"Hahaha! Never! Naruto, you are strong! That's why I must defeat you! So I will do anything to defeat you!" Gaara shouted madly.

" _Grr! What shall I do? It's obvious the tests have stopped..."_

" **Focus on what's in front of you first."**

" _Your right. Okay, let's do this!"_

"Accel... 2!"

Naruto activated his improved Accel.

(AN: time for another biology lesson) This time, as well as doing everything he previously did to activate Accel, he added several things: first, he made his blood cells rubbery so that the pressure created by his heart travelled faster through the blood cells, and secondly, he increased the number of blood cells in his body temporarily. The final thing he did was to do with his heart. The beating of the heart is caused by electricity passing through the muscles of the heart, causing the muscles to contract. This electricity is produced by something called a cardiac pacemaker. Naruto forces the pacemaker to create more electricity, making the heart contract harder.

In this form, Naruto's body was creating so much heat energy that the air around him began wavering as it does when it is near a fire, giving Naruto a demonic aura of the wavering air mixed with Kurama's chakra.

Naruto looked up at Gaara. "Gaara! I don't know much about what is going on, but I will stop you!"

"Hah! Just try!" Gaara taunted him. Naruto took him up on the offer, and disappeared in a blinding red flash, as his speed now was too fast for normal eyes to follow. He reappeared right in front of him and brought his palm to face Gaara's face.

"Shock Fist!" Suddenly, Gaara's head jerked back from the shock wave and he violently coughed up blood. Naruto didn't stop after this, pummelling Gaara's face. Gaara finally managed to jump back and brought his hands up, creating a huge sand wave.

"Damnit! I'm not going to lose! I'M NOT GOING TO DIE!" Gaara cried out, and unleashed the huge sand wave.

"A wide-range attack? I'll have to counter it with my own!" Naruto said. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" He summoned Gamakichi, and the small red toad appeared in a puff of smoke.

"Yo boss, what's up?" Gamakichi said, before noticing the huge sand wave and crying out.

"No time! Quick, let's do that jutsu!" Naruto said in panic.

"Alright!" Gamakichi jumped up on Naruto's shoulder, before Naruto shouted, "Toad Oil Bullet!" and spat out a large amount of oil from his mouth.

At the same time, Gamakichi shouted, "Fire Release: Flame Bullet!" When the fire came into contact with the oil, a huge fireball was created, even bigger than Sasuke's Great Fireball jutsu.

When the fire came into contact with the sand, the sand began turning into glass, which fractured from the heat. Soon, the ground in front of the two was filled with glass powder.

"What!? How did you beat my attack!?" Gaara said, astonished. Naruto used this chance to rush forwards and plunge his fist into Gaara's stomach. At the same time he activated two of his attacks – Shock Fist and Blood Fist (the blood attack from his fight with Jiraiya a few chapters ago) – and combined them. "Crimson Blow!" Gaara shot back and smashed into the ground with a huge explosion.

" _Phew, that took a while. Finally, it's over."_ Naruto deactivated Accel 2 and immediately began eating and drinking some water he had kept for a situation like this.

" **What are you going to do now?"**

" _Now to help the villagers."_

Suddenly, Naruto heard the sound of feet running towards him. He turned and found Temari and Kankuro running to them.

"Temari! What's going on? Don't tell me you were planning to betray Konoha all along!" Naruto asked her desperately. Seeing his face caused her to turn red from shame as she turned around.

"Sorry Naruto, I didn't want it to have anything to do with you..." she said sadly.

"What!? Why are you attacking then?" Naruto asked her, rage filling him at the thought of being betrayed by someone he thought he could trust.

"It's not our fault, it's Konoha's fault, okay!" Kankuro immediately came to Temari's defence.

"What!? How is it our fault!?"

"Konoha is taking too many offers for ninja missions, and as a result, Suna is getting poorer and poorer!" Kankuro shouted.

"... That's it? Why can't you just ask Konoha to hand over some offers?" Naruto stated simply.

"Hah! As if they would just do that!" Kankuro said angrily.

"They would do it if you were allied with them!" Naruto said.

"Just forget it, Naruto. Because I like you, I'll give you the chance to escape," Temari said, not looking at Naruto.

"Run away? No way! I'm going to fight for my village!" Naruto shouted defiantly.

"God Damnit, Naruto! Can't you see I don't want to do this? Just go, stop making it worse!" Temari shouted, and when she looked up at Naruto, he saw that she had tears in her eyes.

"Temari..." Naruto said quietly.

"Please... just go, don't make this harder for me," Temari began pleading him, as tears began dropping from her eyes. Her sadness began affecting Naruto as he realized that, unless the other side gave up, he would probably have to fight them as well, causing tears to come to his eyes.

"Why does it have to be like this?" Naruto asked her quietly as he prepared himself.

Temari smiled bitterly at him. "Life isn't always fair, you know." She also prepared herself, along with Kankuro.

They were about to attack each other when, out of nowhere, sand exploded everywhere and began rushing to Gaara. Temari and Kankuro were right next to Gaara, so the sand began blowing them away.

"What!? How is he still moving?" Naruto groaned.

"Aah!" Temari screamed, and Naruto saw her and Kankuro flying back.

"Temari! Careful!" Naruto cried.

Suddenly, the sand began circling around Gaara at an immense speed, far greater than it was before. The sand smashed into Temari and Kankuro and they were blown into a wall, where they smashed headfirst into the rock. They were going at such a speed that Temari's head burst open, and her brain spilled out.

Naruto's eyes widened as he tried to understand what had just happened.

" _Wait... did she..."_

" **She died, kid. No doubt."**

Naruto fell to his knees as time began to slow down. He felt this extremely strong pain inside him, and he grabbed his chest tightly. He was still in shock, and his mind refused to believe it, even though he had seen it. Tears began dropping from his eyes.

" _She... what?"_

The tears turned from single drops into continuous streams as he finally understood.

" **She died."**

Those words made Naruto snap. He arched his back and let out such a ferocious roar that the entire village heard it, and the battlefield went silent for a few seconds.

When Naruto looked up at Gaara, his eyes had turned red and he began to get surrounded by a vile, red chakra. The chakra covered his body, forming two ears and three tails. He had entered Version 1 of Tailed Beast Transformation.

He didn't even bother to say anything else, he just shot to Gaara. He was going at such a rapid speed that the ground underneath him broke and fractured. He instantly appeared in front of Gaara, and while he was in the air, he grabbed Gaara's head and used the momentum of the jump to rip Gaara's head clean off. Blood sprayed everywhere, and Naruto began ripping Gaara's body. After a minute of ripping, Gaara's body could no longer be recognized; it was just a mass of flesh, blood and organs. As a final act, Naruto took Gaara's heart and put it in his pocket subconsciously.

He then began rampaging, destroying the entire arena. He was so full of pure rage that he began looking around for someone to kill, and found the sound four, who was making a purple barrier. They noticed a disgusting chakra and turned around. When they spotted Naruto with his blood-splattered face and red chakra circling him, they narrowed their eyes.

"Who are you?" Jirobo, one of the four, asked.

Naruto didn't answer with words; he just disappeared and reappeared next to Jirobo, with his head in his hands. Before the barrier even had time to stop working, he had taken off the heads of Sakon and Ukon.

Then the barrier collapsed, leaving Tayuya so stunned that she fainted, and Kidomaru was unable to move from pure fear. Naruto saw that Kidomaru was still standing so he shot to him, but Kidomaru had already fainted before he could get to him, the fear being too much.

As he began to come back to his senses, Naruto looked around and only saw absolute destruction. Before he fainted from fatigue, he had time to think of one thing: _"What the fuck have I done..."_

...

Gaara was a Jinchuuriki, but when he died, Shukaku didn't die. A few minutes after Naruto had left Shukaku began forming, with sand and chakra gathering near Gaara's body. Finally, his formation was complete, and he roared a huge roar.

The Ichibi was free once again, and he wasn't going to waste this opportunity. He was going to make every single one of those humans pay.

Mess with fire and get burned? More like mess with Shukaku and die.

 _Yo. This chapter is very different from my other chapters (longer, bloodier, more detailed, and VERY different from canon) so I NEED to know if it was good:_

 _Were the fight scenes better than the previous fight scenes? I know some of you said how the previous fight scenes lacked detail, so what about now?_

 _What about the plot? Do you think the story is absolute rubbish now that the Gaara trio are dead? Should I have stuck to canon?_

 _Was this too bloody? Or not enough blood (lol who would pick this one)?_

 _I'm really sorry to those who wanted Naruto to be paired with Temari._

 _Oh wait, I'm not. ;) Just kidding, but Temari is overused so I didn't really want her in the harem._

 _As always, thanks for liking this story – over 250 followers! Holy crap!_

 _Peace._

 _P.S. I feel like my story is turning into a biology lesson. School will chase you wherever you go._


	17. Chapter 17

I don't own Naruto.

 **Making**

 _DON'T WORRY, GAARA IS STILL ALIVE!_

" **Wake up."**

Naruto woke up and looked around. He was in a hospital room with a nurse near him looking at a machine.

" _Brings back memories."_

The nurse turned around and saw that he was awake, so she told him to wait while she went to get someone.

" _I bet ya Ojisan is gonna walk in."_

Instead, Gaara and Jiraiya walked in. Naruto took a few seconds to take in that Gaara was still alive, before shouting out loud in shock.

"Aren't you dead!? Didn't I... kill... you..." Naruto slowed down as the memories of what had happened came back. He was so confused that he didn't know whether to be angry, shocked or relieved.

"Naruto," Jiraiya said, "I know you are confused, but we will explain everything. Just rest up for now. We'll talk after you've eaten."

Naruto nodded, and after eating and resting for a bit, they began. Jiraiya started.

"Remember when Orochimaru attacked you in the Forest of Death? Well, we began seriously investigating what was going on after that, and thankfully, I found out that Suna and Oto were planning to attack the village, led by Orochimaru. Furthermore, it turns out that Orochimaru had killed the Fourth Kazekage and was pretending to be him so that he could attack Hiruzen-sensei."

Naruto gasped. "Is Ojisan okay?" he asked. Jiraiya nodded.

"Don't worry; I was with him when we fought that snake bastard. We finally managed to kill him." Naruto could detect a large amount of anger in Jiraiya's voice when he mentioned Orochimaru.

Naruto turned to Gaara with a questioning look. Gaara nodded. "I will continue," he said. "When we fought, you killed me."

Naruto looked down in shame.

"However, I woke up despite dying."

"What!? How?" Naruto asked him.

This time Gaara looked down. Jiraiya saw that Gaara was a little disturbed, so he continued.

"There was a woman called Chiyo in Suna who made it here as fast as she could when she heard that Suna was attacking Konoha. She arrived several hours after we had finished the fight, and used a life-force transferring technique to bring back Gaara at the cost of her own life."

"Why would a random woman give her life to save someone else?" Naruto asked him.

"She was the one who sealed the Ichibi into me, so she no doubt feels as if she was responsible for my death," Gaara explained.

Naruto went quiet, before looking up at Gaara with a smile. "Well, at least we know now that not everyone hated you!"

Hearing this, Gaara gasped. Since the Ichibi was no longer inside him, he no longer had extra thoughts that affected his behaviour, so he could think peacefully about what Naruto had said. This then reminded him of what Naruto had said during their fight about becoming friends.

"I'm sorry, I need time to think," Gaara said before walking out of the room.

Naruto turned to Jiraiya. "How come his personality has changed so much?"

"It hasn't really; it's just that he's thankful to you for getting rid of the Ichibi. It turns out that he was really bothered by the Ichibi," Jiraiya explained. "So anyway, after you killed Gaara the Ichibi reformed since you can't kill a Tailed Beast."

Naruto gasped in horror. "What happened to the Ichibi!?"

Jiraiya sighed. "We were able to subdue it and I sealed it in a paper temporarily, but only temporarily."

"Why not permanently?" Naruto asked.

"Hah, I wish. Tailed Beasts have too much chakra, so they would break out eventually."

"Then what are you going to do with it?"

"Hah... Naruto, forgive me, please." Jiraiya looked very sad and almost had tears in his eyes.

"Why? What did you do?" Naruto was starting to panic.

"... We sealed it into you..."

Naruto was dumbstruck. _"Is it true, Kurama?"_

" **Yeah. He's only keeping quiet because I told him to shut up. Make some noise, Shukaku."**

" **Grr! I WILL ESCAPE!"**

" **There you go. Now shut up, Shukaku."**

Shukaku went quiet.

Naruto looked at Jiraiya and saw that he was worried that Naruto would flip.

"Don't worry, I don't mind," Naruto reassured him. Jiraiya breathed a huge sigh of relief. "I just have one question – why me?"

"Well, we can't seal it in any adults since their chakra pathways would be destroyed and they would die, and we didn't want to burden any children with it. We were unsure of what to do, but then Kakashi suggested that if we sealed it in you, Kurama would be able to heal you quickly enough. Luckily, it worked."

Naruto nodded in understanding.

"So how are you? Are you okay?" Jiraiya asked him.

"Yeah, don't worry. I'm fine," Naruto smiled.

"Did anything bad happen?" Jiraiya asked him.

"No, don't worry. It's just..." Naruto suddenly remembered Temari's death and stopped. He could feel tears coming to his eyes. "Hey Jiraiya-sensei, do you mind leaving me alone? I wanna be by myself for a while."

Jiraiya nodded and left.

...

Gaara was sitting on the roof of the hospital by himself. He was thinking about what Naruto had said, and about Chiyo.

" _Why did she save me? I thought everyone hated me! Surely they would have preferred if I had been killed!"_ Gaara thought. _"Was Naruto telling the truth? Did she really love me?"_ Gaara thought back to his childhood days, and remembered that Chiyo hadn't been scared of him – she had been one of the few who didn't avoid him. _"She really did love me! Why? Am I not a monster? Why would she die for me?"_ The more he thought, the more he realized that there had always been people in his life who loved him. _"My siblings, they didn't avoid me. They stuck by me, despite the fact that they were avoided by the rest of the village as a result..."_

Slowly, tears began rolling down.

" _And I killed Temari! I killed her! Thank god that Kankuro is alive! I killed Chiyo as well! My whole life I've been distancing myself from the ones who really loved me!"_

When the first tear dropped on his hand, he gasped and realized that he was crying. _"Why am I crying? Does that mean I loved them as well?_

...

Naruto was clenching his fists enough to make them bleed. _"Temari died because I was too weak! If I had been stronger, I could have stopped Gaara! It's all because I was too weak!"_

...

" _It's all because I didn't show them that I loved them! I should have accepted them!"_ Gaara thought.

...

" _It's all because of me!"_

" _It's all because of me!"_

...

 _Yo. I had to upload this straight away so that you didn't get too sad that Gaara died. Seriously though, so many HATED the fact that Gaara died! I didn't think you loved him that much! Well, at least everyone can be happy now. Oh wait... Temari's still dead... don't worry, she's gonna come back as well! It's pretty obvious now how... *Cough-Edo Tensei-Cough*_

 _Final note – did you like the bloodiness or should I tone it down for later chapters?_

 _Peace._

 _P.S. Btw reviews aren't working properly – glitch or something – so if I don't reply to your reviews it's because of that._


	18. Chapter 18

I don't own Naruto.

 **Naruto's**

A few weeks after the events that had happened during the chunin exam finals, the village had been mostly repaired, and life was back to normal for the civilians. The genin that had participated in the chunin exams were lined up in front of the Hokage inside the ninja academy, with several jonin and chunin standing behind the Hokage.

"First of all, I would like to begin by thanking you – I'm sure the invasion would have been much more successful had it not been for you." The Hokage began by thanking them. "Now, I'm sure you're all excited to find out if you have qualified to become a chunin. However, since the invasion interrupted the exam, we cannot promote all of you." At this, some of the genin sighed in sadness. "From the fights that we witnessed, we have decided to promote the following ninja."

The genin held their breaths in anticipation.

"Neji Hyuuga! Shino Aburame! Shikamaru Nara! That is all!"

"What!? How was I not promoted but Neji was, even though I beat him!?" Sasuke exclaimed in outrage.

"Sasuke Uchiha, it is true that you are very talented. However, the purpose of the exams is to see which of the genin has the mindset of a chunin, and unfortunately you did not display that in your fight," Hiruzen explained.

Sasuke gritted his teeth in anger but kept quiet as he understood.

" _Huh, so they didn't graduate me. Maybe it's for the same reason as Sasuke's reason? I didn't show much thinking in my fight with Gaara, I just attacked him..."_

"However, those of you that didn't pass – do not give up! The chunin exams are held twice a year, so your chance will come again!" Hiruzen said to them.

"Hokage-sama, will the next chunin exams be held here as well?" Naruko asked him.

He shook his head. "Each time it is held in a different country. I don't know yet where it will be held next. Anymore questions?"

No one said anything, so he dismissed them. "You will return to your usual duties starting tomorrow. Goodbye!"

" _So what shall I do now? I'm pretty bored..."_

" **You're going to train. After all, you still haven't perfected the Tailed Beast Ball."**

" _Whaaat? Come on Kurama..."_

" **Nope, let's go."**

" _Hah, fine..."_

...

As Sasuke was walking out, he was stopped by Neji.

"What?" he asked Neji. Neji looked down.

"... I would like you to help me become stronger..." Neji said quietly.

"Why me?" Sasuke asked, confused.

"Because you beat me," Neji said.

"Well I don't have any need to train you, so no," Sasuke said briefly before walking off.

"Wait! Please! I'll do anything in return!" Neji said desperately.

Sasuke stopped and turned around. "Go to Naruto. He's the one who made me this strong, so he can do the same for you." With that, he walked off.

" _Go to Naruto? Well, it's better than nothing..."_ Neji thought, so he ran off to find Naruto.

...

Naruto was training in the forests outside Konoha when he heard someone approaching him. When he turned around, he saw Neji.

"You! What do you want?" Naruto asked.

"I asked Sasuke to train me, but he rejected me and directed me to you," Neji explained.

"Well, I don't mind training you, but it's not like Sasuke to reject someone in terms of training... what could it be...?"

" **Remember when you said before the exams that you knew the reason why the Uchiha brat was acting weirdly? Does it have anything to do with that?"**

" _Oh crap! Thanks for reminding me, Kurama!"_

"Neji! I don't mind training you, but it will have to wait, okay? I have something I need to take care of!"

Neji nodded and thanked Naruto, before Naruto rushed off to find Sasuke.

" _Shit! I hope I make it in time!"_

" **What's going on?"**

" _Sasuke... I'm not totally sure, but I think he's going to try to leave the village!"_

" **Why would he do that?"**

" _He thinks he's ready to face his brother Itachi now that he has the Mangekyo!"_

Finally, Naruto made it to the Uchiha complex – just in time as well, because he just caught sight of Sasuke rushing off in the distance.

" _Shit! He's going already!"_

Naruto began chasing Sasuke and calling out his name. Finally, Naruto caught up to him. At the Valley of the End.

"Sasuke! Don't be crazy! You're nowhere near strong enough to face Itachi yet!" Naruto shouted.

"Hah! I have the Mangekyo, proof of my strength!" Sasuke boasted.

"You think that's enough to beat an S-rank criminal? Stop being idiotic!" Naruto shouted.

"What do you know!? Besides, I'm stronger than you now! How are you going to stop me?" Sasuke shouted.

"Fine, we'll settle this with a fight! If I win then you can't leave the village!"

"And if I win, then you don't try to stop me in any way, and you don't alert the others of the reason why I left!"

"Deal!"

The two jumped back from each other until Sasuke was standing on the statue of Madara and Naruto was standing on the statue of Hashirama.

The two closed their eyes and brought their hands up in the half Tiger seal sign.

" _Sasuke... why can't you just understand?"_

A single leaf began floating down.

" _Naruto... I'm sorry we had to finish like this..."_

The leaf crept closer and closer to the lake.

" _God Damnit! Why does this always happen to me? Friends turning into foes? First it was Temari, now it's Sasuke..."_

The leaf was a few inches away from the surface.

" _Naruto... you'll never understand my pain... that's why... I can't let you stop me!"_

The leaf struck the surface of the lake, and ripples spread from the impact.

At the same time, the two opened their eyes fiercely and shot towards each other. Sasuke had activated his Sharingan.

"Red Mode!" Naruto shouted, before turning red and increasing his speed.

When they got to each other, Naruto began to fiercely swipe at Sasuke, with Sasuke dodging most of them thanks to his Sharingan.

"Naruto! Stop meddling in affairs that are none of your business!" Sasuke shouted, before jumping back. "Fire Release: Great Fireball jutsu!" A huge fireball shot towards Naruto.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu! Toad Oil Bullet!" At the same time, Gamakichi used his jutsu.

"Fire Release: Flame Bullet!"

The two fireballs clashed with each other, and soon smoke covered the area.

" _This smoke is disadvantageous to me since Sasuke can see but I can't..."_

Naruto released a large amount of chakra and blew away the smoke, but when the smoke cleared he couldn't see Sasuke.

" _Crap! Where is he!?"_

Suddenly, Naruto heard, "Amaterasu!" When he turned around, he found that Sasuke had activated his Mangekyo.

" _Shit! I'm too late!"_

Black flames exploded on Naruto's chest.

"Hah! It's my win!" Sasuke shouted.

However, when Naruto didn't scream out after a few seconds, Sasuke tilted his head in confusion. "Why aren't you screaming? It should be killing you!"

"To be honest, I have no idea," Naruto said, also confused. After realizing that the flames were going to do nothing, Sasuke shut them off.

" _What the hell!?"_ Sasuke thought.

Unknown to them, the reason why the flames hadn't affected Naruto was because although the flames burn everything, they have no effect on chakra or things filled with chakra. In Red Mode, Naruto's entire body was filled with and surrounded by chakra, so of course the flames wouldn't work.

"Well then... I guess I win!" Naruto said hesitantly.

"No! I'm not done yet! I don't need Amaterasu to defeat you!" Sasuke shouted, before rushing to Naruto.

"I'm going to finish this quickly. Accel!" Naruto's speed was too much for Sasuke, and he disappeared before appearing behind Sasuke.

"Shock Fist!" Sasuke was blown back by the attack.

" _Shit! I can see his attacks, but they are too fast for me to dodge!"_ Sasuke thought in frustration.

"Sasuke! Just give up, okay? I haven't even used all of the power of the Tailed Beasts yet. It's clear who's stronger," Naruto pleaded.

Sasuke stopped moving and looked down. After a while, he looked up at Naruto. "... Then what, you want me to give up on avenging my family!?"

"No! You just need to get stronger!" Naruto said.

"But I can't just leave him be! You can't understand my pain of losing my family, so you won't be able to understand why I need to kill him so much!" Sasuke shouted at Naruto.

"... You're right, I don't understand you," Naruto said quietly.

"Then don't stop me!" Sasuke said.

"But I do know that friends help each other!" Naruto cried out. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"What are you suggesting?" Sasuke said.

"I'm not suggesting anything – I'm going to state it: I will help you find Itachi!" Naruto said with force.

Sasuke widened his eyes in surprise. "Why would you do that!? It's got nothing to do with you!"

"Yes it does, because you're my friend!" Naruto shouted.

Sasuke faltered, before resuming his argument. "That doesn't mean you need to butt into other people's businesses!"

"I'm not butting into your business!" Naruto shouted.

"THEN WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Sasuke finally couldn't stand it anymore.

"... I'm trying to make sure you don't die, Sasuke," Naruto said this quietly, and Sasuke could hear the desperation in Naruto's voice. "Sasuke, remember the first training fight we had with each other?"

Sasuke nodded.

"Well, that was the most fun I have ever had. I remember thinking that if I had a brother I would want him to be like you, because you're the closest thing I have to a brother."

Sasuke's eyes softened a tiny bit.

"Sasuke, I may not know what it's like losing a family member, but if I lose you..." Naruto couldn't finish the sentence.

Sasuke closed his eyes and began walking back to the village.

"Sasuke? What's wrong?" Naruto asked him in surprise.

"Wrong? Nothing's wrong. It's just that I've realized now how stupid I was acting." Naruto's eyes widened in shock then in joy. "And Naruto?"

"What?"

"If I ever do something like this again, you'd better stop me."

Naruto was speechless for a while, before crying out in joy. "You bet! Now let's go have some ramen!"

 _Yo. This chapter is pretty much a filler. Naruto will be going on a training trip with Jiraiya in one or two chapters so that this story doesn't get boring._

 _Thanks for supporting this story. I got some hate comments on the chapter where Gaara dies, but tbh they were pretty funny to read so I don't mind. Besides, I got way more useful reviews._

 _Peace._

 _P.S. does anyone even read what I say? Haha jk_


	19. Chapter 19

I don't own Naruto.

 **Journey**

Naruto was walking around the village one day when he spotted Dosu, Zaku and Kin walking out of the hospital. His face broke into a smile and he jogged towards them. When they heard him, they turned around and smiled after catching sight of him.

"Hey Naruto, how are you?" Kin asked.

"I'm good, how are you guys? And where were you during the invasion?" Naruto replied.

They all looked down so as not to show Naruto their guilty faces. "We were... in the hospital," Dosu said lamely. Surprisingly, Naruto believed them and nodded.

"So what are you guys doing now? Don't tell me you're already returning to your village?" Naruto asked anxiously.

Dosu shook his head. "The leader of our village died, and our village is shit anyway, so we decided to become ninja of Konoha."

"Really? Cool!" Naruto almost shouted with a huge grin on his face.

"I'm gonna go ask the Hokage if we can, so you guys do what you want for today. Starting tomorrow, we'll resume our training, okay?" Dosu said to the other two before walking off.

"I'm going as well Kin, I've gotta find the guy who beat me last time!" Zaku said, before running off as well. Kin said nothing for a while.

"So... you doing anything?" Naruto asked her.

"Not really..." Kin replied.

"Nice! I'll show you around Konoha. Come on, let's go!" Naruto said enthusiastically, before dragging Kin away.

They spent the day running around doing literally anything. Finally, when evening approached, they stopped to rest on a bench in a quiet park.

"So what did you think?" Naruto asked breathlessly.

Kin had a huge smile on her face. "It was fun! Thanks for today!"

"Hahaha it's okay," Naruto went a little red.

"Well, thank you for everything, Naruto," Kin said quietly, a little red herself.

"Don't worry about it." Naruto waved his hand to show that he didn't mind.

"No, seriously, I'm really thankful, Naruto," Kin whispered and leaned into Naruto a bit. "Without you, I would have lost faith in humanity."

Naruto went redder at the touch of a girl on his shoulder. "Kin, if someone sees us like this they'll think that we're lovers..."

Kin looked up straight into Naruto's eyes, making him catch his breath. "I don't mind. Do you?" Kin asked him. There was no way he could say no when she was looking straight at him, so he shook his head slowly. "Actually Naruto, I'd prefer if we were lovers..."

"Wait, what?" Naruto was shocked at her words.

"Naruto, I've fallen in love with you..."

Naruto's heart started beating furiously. _"What shall I do!?"_

" **... Idiot. Now's the moment where you kiss her."**

" _Kiss her!? I can't do that!"_

" **Why not? She's cute, she loves you, you're by yourself..."**

Naruto gulped and tilted his head slightly so that he was fully facing Kin. Seeing this, she closed her eyes and leaned in a little before puckering her lips.

Naruto's eyes widened as he realized what he was about to do, but he pushed all other thoughts out of his mind and leaned in as well.

He was millimetres away from her lips when he heard a loud shout: "No!"

Startled, he quickly turned around and saw Hinata running towards them, with Hanabi standing behind her. Kin opened her eyes, and when she saw Hinata, said, "Who's she?"

"She's my teammate, Hinata," Naruto replied. Inside, he was shitting himself. _"How could I forget that Hinata confessed to me!? What shall I do, Kurama!?"_

" **Hahaha! This is turning out to be amusing! I won't help you out with this one!"**

" _Damn you, Kurama!"_

"Naruto! Don't tell me you forgot what I said to you!" Hinata shouted.

"What the hell? What did you say to him that was so important you had to interrupt us!?" Kin shouted back.

"Naruto! I love you! Do you love me back?" Hinata shouted at him.

" _Shit! What shall I say!?"_

"... I'm sorry Hinata, I still haven't made up my mind," Naruto said nervously.

"... Wait, does that mean you don't love me!?" Kin said, enraged.

"No! I love you all! It's just that I'm not sure who I love the most!" Naruto exclaimed.

Hearing the sadness in his voice, the two girls realized that they were being harsh on him so they backed off a little.

"Okay Naruto, we'll give you more time to decide. But when the time comes, you'd better have an answer!" Hinata said before walking off. Kin nodded in agreement before walking off herself. Shortly, only Naruto and Hanabi were left in the park.

Naruto sighed deeply. Hanabi walked to him and sat down beside him.

"I'm Hanabi, Hinata's little sister." She introduced herself.

Naruto nodded at her. "Nice to meet you," he said.

"I've noticed that you're having some trouble. Do you really not know who you love the most?" Hanabi asked him.

"Actually, I lied," Naruto said, causing her to gasp.

"Then why didn't you say so?" Hanabi asked.

"Because they wouldn't accept it as an answer. The truth is that I love them both the same, and I don't think that's going to change."

"But you can't expect them to agree to that!" Hanabi said.

"I know. But I'll keep o trying to convince them, no matter how long it takes!" Naruto said.

Hearing the determination in his voice, Hanabi almost smiled. _"So this is why Hinata had been getting more confident lately..."_ she thought.

"Err, Hanabi, could I ask you to do something for me?" Naruto asked her.

Hanabi nodded.

"Could you try to convince Hinata that I really do love them both, and that I'm willing to look after both of them if they are okay sharing me?"

"I'll try, but there's no way that she'll agree," Hanabi said sceptically.

"No! Have confidence in yourself. I'm sure that you can do it!" Naruto grabbed her shoulders tightly when he said this, and Hanabi gasped at the sudden contact before blushing slightly.

"Oh! Sorry, didn't mean to do that," Naruto apologized sheepishly, but the damage had already been done. His determination had been conveyed to Hanabi when he had grabbed her, and she was now developing a large blush thinking about it.

"Well, anyway, I'm relying on you!" Naruto got up to walk off.

" _He's relying on me!?"_ Hanabi thought as she started to go dizzy thinking about Naruto grabbing her.

"See ya!" Naruto waved, before walking off. He didn't see the massive blush on her face when she waved back.

...

Earlier that day, Sasuke had been training in training ground 7 when Sakura had walked in after spotting him.

"Hi, Sasuke! Looks like you're training very hard!" she said happily.

Sasuke ignored her and carried on training.

"Sasuke, can I ask you a question?" she asked him.

"You just did, but fine. Go on." Sasuke stopped training to look at her.

"It's just... what motivates you to train that hard, Sasuke? Because I want to become strong like you!"

"What motivates me? I guess it's Naruto that motivates me. I wish to become stronger than him," Sasuke answered.

Sakura was confused. "But you're already stronger than him, right?"

Sasuke shook his head. "Wrong."

Sakura's eyes widened. "I don't get it! How come he's that strong if all he did was mess around in the academy? Meanwhile, I'm trying my hardest and I get nowhere near as strong as him! How is it fair that an annoying boy like him is stronger than me!?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and walked towards her. "You have NO idea how hard Naruto works. Naruto works harder than any of us, so don't you DARE say ANYTHING about how hard he works."

Sakura gulped at Sasuke's rage and started shaking slightly. "B-but don't you think i-it's unfair that he's stronger than you even though he always used to mess around and annoy people?"

Sasuke closed his eyes. "You think he was the one being annoying? Do you know how hard his childhood was?"

"Well, it's not exactly hard to play pranks on people!" Sakura said.

Sasuke had heard enough. "Let me show you something. I'm going to place you in a genjutsu where you will be Naruto for a few hours. The genjutsu will not break however hard you try, so the only option you have is to live through it." He then looked straight into her eyes and cast the genjutsu.

At once, Sakura found herself sitting on a bench, the streets busy with people shopping and walking around. She looked down on herself ad found that she was wearing Naruto's clothes.

" _Eww! I've got to get out of this genjutsu!"_ she thought, but when she tried releasing the genjutsu, she failed.

" _God Damnit! Guess I'll have to wait until Sasuke breaks the genjutsu..."_ she thought sadly. She then realized that she was hungry, so she decided to go to a restaurant nearby.

" _What's with the looks I'm receiving? I haven't even done anything and they're looking at me like they want to kill me..."_

When she entered the restaurant, everyone immediately went quiet. One of the workers walked up to her and pointed to the exit.

"Get out!" he said with venom.

"What!? But I haven't done anything! I just want to eat!" she protested.

"I SAID GET OUT! WE DON'T WELCOME MONSTERS LIKE YOU HERE!" the worker began shouting.

Looking around, Sakura saw that everyone had similar expressions, so she quickly ran off with tears in her eyes.

" _Why!? I didn't even do anything and they already kicked me out!"_ she thought. Then she remembered Sasuke's words: _"Do you know how hard his childhood was?"_

" _Is this what you meant, Sasuke?"_ she thought.

...

Several hours later, the genjutsu broke and Sakura found herself facing Sasuke.

"Naruto experiences that every day," Sasuke said shortly, before walking off.

Sakura was speechless. The several hours had been torture, with her getting rejected by every single shop she entered.

" _He experiences that every day? Maybe I have been too harsh on him..."_ she thought.

 _Yo. I'd like to thank Animaman for giving me several ideas for this chapter. I'd also like to thank you all for reading this story, thank you very much._

 _Once again, if you have any ideas then do not hesitate to tell me!_

 _Peace._

 _P.S. AngelofDeath666, WHERE HAVE YOU GONE!? XD_


	20. Chapter 20

I don't own Naruto.

 **Through**

Naruto was woken up by the sound of an old man screaming, "Whoa!" as he smashed a window.

"What?" Naruto opened his eyes and came face to face with Jiraiya. "What are you doing here, Jiraiya?"

"Huh, show some respect to your teacher, boy!" Jiraiya said in a semi-mocking tone.

"Hmm, you're right... how about I call you ero-sennin?" Naruto said with a cheeky smile.

"You!" Jiraiya fumed, before shaking his head. "This isn't what I came to talk about. I'm going to leave the village today."

"Really? Well, goodbye, I guess," Naruto scratched his head.

"No, idiot! I want you to come with me!" Jiraiya sighed.

"What? Why?" Naruto asked.

"Well, I can't tell you everything yet, but basically, a criminal organization called Akatsuki wants you dead."

"Me!? What have I done?"

"I have no idea; my spy network is still trying to find out more about it. But since several S-class criminals are after you, I thought it would be better if you stuck with me and I trained you for a while."

Naruto was silent for a while. "Does Ojisan know about this?"

"Yeah, and he reluctantly agreed to let you go if you wanted to go," Jiraiya answered.

Naruto started thinking deeply. "For how long will we be gone?"

"Well, we'll be back after one year so that you can participate in the chunin exams, but we'll leave again after that and we'll probably be gone for four years."

Naruto was in shock. "Four whole years!?"

"Naruto, it's necessary! We're not talking about some chunin-level ninja here; these are ninja that most jonin wouldn't be able to defeat!" Jiraiya almost shouted, causing Naruto to go quiet.

" **I agree with this guy, brat. Go with him."**

After hearing Kurama's thoughts, Naruto made up his mind and nodded. "Fine, I'll come with you. But at least let me say goodbye to everyone."

Jiraiya smiled. "Take your time. We'll be leaving in the evening, so meet me at the entrance when the Sun starts to go down. Don't be late!" With that, Jiraiya went off, probably to take care of some business.

" _Well, time to say goodbye to everyone."_

First he said goodbye to the people that he wasn't that close with – people like Ino, Tenten, Lee and Neji. Then he said goodbye to Naruko, Hinata and Kin. Each one was extremely sad to hear that he was leaving, but understood that there was nothing that they could do to stop it.

"You'd better have an answer to that question when you come back!" Hinata said almost threateningly.

Finally, he went to the training grounds, and found Sasuke and Shino sparring with each other. They stopped when they saw him coming.

"Naruto! Are you going to join in?" Sasuke asked him. Naruto shook his head, and proceeded to tell them how he was leaving the village.

"But don't worry Sasuke, I haven't forgotten my promise! When I come back, we'll deal with Itachi together!" Naruto said.

"Naruto... thanks," Sasuke smiled.

"Don't worry about it. Besides, you should be worrying about how I'm going to leave you in the dust in this training trip!"

"Hah! Not a chance. When you come back, you'll find that you've fallen far behind me!" Sasuke taunted.

"Let's see! And Shino, don't think you've escaped!" Naruto turned to Shino.

Shino was very confused. "Eh? What did I do?"

"How do you expect to be an amazing ninja if all you do is practice your clan's techniques? Make some of your own, okay?" Naruto said.

Shino nodded with a slight smile.

"Well, see ya guys!" Naruto waved, before walking off.

Shino turned to Sasuke. "Am I really that far behind you two?" he asked seriously.

"Hah, of course!" Sasuke joked. "Now let's carry on!"

" _If Naruto is going on a training trip in order to become stronger, maybe I should go on one too..."_ Shino thought.

...

"You ready?" Jiraiya asked Naruto, who nodded. Naruto looked back at the village one last time before turning around and walking off with Jiraiya.

" _When I come back, I will be strong enough to become Hokage!"_

"So Naruto, this is the plan: for the first year, we will be travelling around The Land of Fire, and I will be training you in preparation for the chunin exams while I complete some jobs to do with my spy network. After the chunin exams, we will travel around the ninja nations, where your training will become much more intense. Got it?"

Naruto nodded excitedly.

" **By the way brat, I have some tricks I need to show you as well."**

This was going to be one hell of a training trip.

...

2 months later, the Hokage was visited by two unexpected visitors. He was sitting peacefully in his office, when suddenly, one of his assistants walked in, followed by a tall man and a short girl wearing a mask. The tall man had a huge sword on his back.

" _This man... he's definitely not a normal ninja. The same could be said about the girl... or is she a girl?"_ Hiruzen thought.

"How may I help you?" he asked the two.

The large man began speaking. "I am Zabuza Momochi of Kirigakure. I wish to hire some of your ninja." His voice was intimidating and rough, but Hiruzen was unfazed.

"Ah, The Demon of the Mist, am I correct? If you need ninja, why do you come to us instead of going to your own village?" Hiruzen asked him.

"Heh, the reason why I want your ninja is to help free my country from the clutches of Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage himself."

"May I ask why you wish to free the country from Yagura?" Hiruzen asked.

"He is a terrible leader, brutal and uncaring. I wish to create a peaceful Kirigakure and a peaceful Land of Water, and that can only be done by getting rid of him." Zabuza's voice was filled with venom every time he spoke of Yagura.

"Well, I must inform you that Yagura is dead – there is a new Mizukage," Hiruzen said with a slight smile.

"What!? Who is the new Mizukage!?" Zabuza exclaimed in shock.

"It is Mei Terumi."

"Mei-san! Wait no, that can't be right. What colour hair does she have?" Zabuza asked after getting up in surprise.

"I believe she has auburn-coloured hair. Why? Do you know her?" Hiruzen asked, a little confused himself.

"She was my senior in the ninja academy! Well then, guess us coming here was a waste! Let's go, Haku." Zabuza got up began walking out, followed by Haku.

"Wait!" Hiruzen called out, making them stop. "I've been thinking about something for a while now, do you mind sitting down?"

The two sat down again.

" _This could be dangerous... this man is renowned for being a brutal assassin... should I do this?"_ Hiruzen began thinking.

"What is it?" Zabuza asked impatiently.

"Well, I have a genin that I would like to send with you so that you could train him in return for some payment..." Hiruzen said hesitantly.

"If the payment is enough, I don't mind doing it," Zabuza said.

Hiruzen thought for a while, before thinking of a solution. _"If I send him along with an ANBU member, it should be okay..."_

"Would you mind if someone accompanied the genin for protection?" Hiruzen asked, and Zabuza shook his head. "I will tell him to prepare straight away. I'd like for you to return in around one year in time for the chunin exams, although he may choose to extend his stay with you."

"What is this boy's name?"

"His name is... Sasuke Uchiha."

 _Yo. Haku's a girl in this. The events surrounding Akatsuki will happen 2 and a half years after they actually happened i.e. they will start hunting the Jinchuuriki 2 and a half years after they actually do. Naruto will be 18 when he comes back. Shino will get some focus as well as the other characters. Everyone will take their training seriously._

 _Other than that, thanks for reading._

 _Peace._


	21. Chapter 21

I don't own Naruto.

 **Life**

" **You're still not compressing it enough!"**

Naruto was walking alongside Jiraiya, a premature Tailed Beast Ball in his hands. Kurama was still trying to teach him how to do the Tailed Beast Ball.

" _You said it would take around one month to complete!"_

" **Well obviously I didn't think you were this bad! This is getting annoying now."**

"Hey ero-sennin, do you have any advice for how I can compress my chakra more?" Naruto asked Jiraiya.

"Well, it seems as if you won't be able to compress that much more," Jiraiya observed.

"Then what can I do?" Naruto asked him desperately.

"I won't tell you, but I'll show you a similar attack." Jiraiya proceeded to make a Rasengan.

Naruto didn't see anything helpful, but Kurama gasped in understanding.

" _What? You got something?"_

" **Try rotating the chakra around the centre of your palm. That should help you contain the attack more."**

Naruto proceeded to do that, and found that he could make the Ball slightly smaller.

" **Keep practising that and you'll eventually get it done."**

"Hey ero-sennin, where are we going next?" Naruto asked.

"We're going to visit one of my former teammates, Tsunade Senju. I still need to tell her that we beat Orochimaru, and besides, she might be able to help you with that ability of yours."

...

"No! You should have followed through with that attack to perform a spinning kick! Always think about how you can extend the time you are attacking!"

Zabuza was teaching Sasuke the basics of kenjutsu, while Haku and an ANBU member watched nearby. The group had been rapidly making their way to Kirigakure, and they had almost arrived. Being the serious guy that he was, Zabuza had trained Sasuke every day until he could no longer move, then forced him to train with Haku. He had also disallowed the use of the Sharingan unless it was so that Sasuke could learn a jutsu. Finally, he had trained Sasuke in the art of Silent Killing.

They finally arrived at Kirigakure 2 months after they had originally set off. Zabuza immediately made his way to the Mizukage's office, wishing to see the new Mizukage. Several guards attempted to stop him after realizing that he was The Demon of the Mist, but the group quickly evaded them and continued. When they found the office, Zabuza ordered Sasuke and the ANBU member to wait outside before entering with Haku.

Inside, Mei was arguing with Aoi and Chojuro, but they stopped when Zabuza entered. Seeing the two, Aoi took up a defensive stance and Chojuro brought out his sword in alarm.

"Demon of the Mist, what a pleasant surprise. What brings you here?" Mei asked calmly with a small smirk. However, she was shocked when Zabuza placed his sword down and kneeled, Haku doing the same.

"What is the meaning of this!?" Aoi asked in alarm.

"We wish to rejoin the ninja ranks of Kirigakure," Zabuza said sincerely.

Mei narrowed her eyes. "I thought you were out to take down the Mizukage?"

"That was until I heard that Yagura had been replaced by you, Mei-san," he said, before taking off the bandages on his face.

Mei gasped. "So it was you, Zabuza Momochi!"

Chojuro turned to her. "Do you know him?" he asked her.

She nodded. "He was my junior in the ninja academy. I have no problem taking you back in, but we will have to interrogate you to make sure that you're not lying. Also, who are the two outside?"

"I was paid to train one of them, and the other is here for protection," Zabuza explained. "I need to return them in 8 months."

Mei nodded. "Bring them in. We will find them a house, and then we will interrogate you."

...

Shino sighed. His training had begun to feel repetitive, and he wasn't improving much.

"What's wrong, Shino?" Kurenai asked him, stopping their training.

"It's just... I feel like I can't advance my skills much more doing this. I need something new."

"... Wow. That's the most I've heard you speak in one go," Hinata joked.

"Sensei. Do you think it would be a good idea if I went on a training trip as well?" Shino asked.

Kurenai was shocked. "You want to go on a training trip as well? Well, I guess I wouldn't mind. The only problem is that you need to get the permission of your parents and the Hokage," she said.

Shino nodded before walking off.

"Wait! Where are you going!?" Kurenai exclaimed.

"I am going to get permission," Shino stated before waving goodbye and walking off.

The girls were silent for a while, before Kurenai turned to Hinata. "You'd better not go on one as well. I don't want to be too lonely."

"Nah, don't worry. Besides, I've got things I need to take care of back home..."

Later on that day, Hinata went to see her father in his study. He turned around when he heard her coming. "Hinata, what brings you here?"

"You know very well, father. I am the clan heir, and I need to prove it to the entire clan. I wish to spar with my sister Hanabi in front of the whole clan. I also want to fight Neji, but that's more personal."

Hiashi sighed. "I knew this day was coming. Very well, you will spar Hanabi tomorrow night. I will alert the entire clan."

Just as Hinata was about to walk out, she heard him whispering, "I have high hopes for you..."

 **1 day later**

Hinata was waiting in a room near a massive courtyard where most of the Hyuuga were listening to Hiashi speak. She looked at her sister across the room.

"Hanabi, no hard feelings, yeah? I still love you, regardless of the result of this battle," she said.

"Same to you, big sister," Hanabi replied. "But don't expect to win so easily."

Hinata smirked. _"This might be fun."_

Soon, they heard their names being called out, so they made their way to the centre of the courtyard while everyone was clapping for them. She noticed a few people giving her mocking looks, as if they were thinking, _"Does she really think she can win? She lost last time, and the result will be the same this time!"_

She gritted her teeth in anger. _"I'll fucking show you! Just you wait!"_ Looking around, she saw Neji seated as well. _"You too, Neji! Just you wait!"_

The sisters were now facing each other. Hiashi looked at the two before lifting his hand. "Begin!" he shouted, before jumping back.

Hanabi immediately rushed to Hinata, her Byakugan active. Hinata activated her Byakugan as well, before gesturing for Hanabi to attack first. Hanabi swiped at Hinata's head with her right hand, but Hinata saw it coming and ducked, striking Hanabi's stomach. However, Hanabi dodged the attack as well, using her Byakugan to see that low before jumping back. Hinata didn't give her time to rest, jumping forwards and attacking with a flying kick. Hanabi turned to the side to avoid it, but Hinata used her trail leg to catch Hanabi on the head. Hanabi managed to duck before the attack fully connected, making the leg only graze her. The two girls stopped to rest for a bit.

" _I could beat her if we continued this, but I've got to make it flashy... shall I use the Cursed Seal?"_ Hinata thought.

" _Wow, Hinata really has gotten stronger, and it's all because of Naruto... that boy is amazing!"_ Hanabi thought.

The two rushed at each other again, this time Hinata taking the initiative. She threw a flurry of strikes at Hanabi, who just managed to block all of them before ducking and striking up at Hinata's chin.

" _That's it! I've had enough of this!"_ Hinata thought, before bringing her head down to the fist. Hanabi's fist smashed into Hinata's chin at full power, aided by the fact that Hinata had brought her head down. A few wisps of chakra were blown away, indicating that Hanabi had used chakra to enhance her attack.

"Heh, it's over already," Neji scorned her. Several members of the audience agreed.

However, they were shocked when Hanabi retreated and Hinata looked up again. She had several black marks resembling flames covering her face, and she was surrounded by a vile, purple chakra.

"Sorry Hanabi, but it's over now," she smirked, before bursting forwards and striking Hanabi in the stomach. Hanabi didn't have enough time to even register the attack, and was blown back out of the ring, landing roughly on the ground.

After a few seconds of silence, Hiashi got up. "Hinata Hyuuga is the winner!"

Immediately, the crowd began talking with fervour about the result. Soon, several elder members walked to Hiashi and began mentioning how Hinata shouldn't have used that chakra.

" _Huh, they'll never be satisfied,"_ Hinata thought. "Very well, how about this: I'll face Neji without using that chakra!"

Immediately, the crowd went quiet again, before laughing loudly.

"I agree!" Neji said, walking out of the crowd. When he said this, the crowd realized that Hinata was serious so they sat back down.

"Father?" Hinata asked her father for permission. Reluctantly, he nodded and sat back down.

"Begin!"

The two didn't move for a while.

" _I'm going to have to use Tenseigan for this... oh well, let's do this!"_ she thought.

"Byakugan!" Neji activated his Byakugan.

At the same time, Hinata activated her eyes. "Tenseigan!"

"What!? She has the legendary eyes of Kaguya Otsutsuki!?" an elder exclaimed.

"Let's do this, Neji! Eight Trigrams Vacuum Wall!" She pushed her hands out, ejecting chakra which rushed to Neji.

"Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven!" Neji countered it by spinning around and ejecting chakra, creating a shield around him. "Hinata! I will finish this immediately to show you just how weak you are!" He rushed forwards, Hinata equalling his speed.

"You are in my range! Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!" Neji cried before beginning his onslaught.

"No, _you_ are in _my_ range! Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms!" Hinata matched his speed.

"It's obvious that Neji's going to win since his attack is superior to Hinata's attack," an elder said, and others around him nodded. However, when Neji fell instead of Hinata, they were shocked into silence.

"It's true that he got more hits in, but Hinata's hits were stronger," Hiashi explained. "I think this proves that Hinata is worthy of being the clan heir, don't you agree?"

" _Hinata... you just might grow up to be the greatest clan leader ever..."_

 _Yo. I won't be able to upload as frequently because I've started another Naruto story, but I will upload at least once every two weeks (I hope)._

 _Any new ideas? Feel free to tell me._

 _Peace._


	22. Chapter 22

I don't own Naruto.

 **Including**

"Let's try this one then," Jiraiya said. 9 months after they had left Konoha, they had been wandering around the village that Tsunade was supposed to be in for quite a while and they still hadn't found her.

"This one's gonna be no different," Naruto huffed as they walked in.

"No no, don't be pessimistic... ah! There she is! Finally!" The two rushed to a corner of the bar where Tsunade was drinking with her assistant, Shizune. "Tsunade! Missed me?" Jiraiya said with a big grin.

"Jiraiya! What are you doing here?" she replied with a question.

"Well you see, I have some good news and some bad news," Jiraiya said.

"Tell me the good news first," Tsunade requested.

"Very well. A few months ago, Hiruzen-sensei and I finally managed to kill Orochimaru."

Tsunade's jaw dropped. "Are you serious!?" she asked. Jiraiya nodded. She sighed in relief. "About time. He was just becoming worse and worse in his quest for power and knowledge."

"But I'll still miss him," Jiraiya said solemnly. "He was one of the constant things in my life, and now he's... gone."

Tsunade nodded in understanding, and they shared a moment of silence for their former comrade.

"So, what's the bad news?" Tsunade asked, breaking the silence.

"Hahaha, there wasn't really any bad news," Jiraiya said while scratching the back of his head.

Tsunade shook her head and sighed. "You are so annoying sometimes."

"Well, to be honest I had another reason for coming here. This boy, Naruto, is my apprentice, but I want you to train him for a few weeks." Jiraiya pushed Naruto forwards, who waved and smiled.

Tsunade raised her eyebrows. "Why should I train a random child just because they're your apprentice?"

"Well, he kind of helped us defeat Orochimaru. Like, a lot. So you owe him for that. Besides, he has a cool ability that you would definitely like."

"What's your ability?" Tsunade asked Naruto.

Naruto shook his head. "First agree to train me, and then I'll tell you."

"You cheeky brat! ... Fine, I agree. Shizune, we're going to stay here for a bit longer, got it?" Tsunade said. Shizune nodded and got up.

"I will prepare a hotel room," she said before walking off.

"Let's get out of here. We'll need some space for this..." Jiraiya said.

...

A few minutes later, they were standing in an empty field outside the village, and Naruto had just told her about her abilities.

"You'll have to show me proof," Tsunade said suspiciously.

Immediately, Naruto brought his hands up and fired a lightning shot at Tsunade, who dodged it quickly.

"I see! You used the electricity in the nervous system to fire that shot! ... I believe you now. I just have one question – how on earth did you get this power?"

Naruto shook his head. "I can't tell anyone that," he said.

"Fine, whatever."

"Ero-sennin, I have a question for you," Naruto said. "Why did you bring me to Tsunade to train, out of all people? I mean, I know she's strong and all, but why her?"

"Well, Tsunade probably knows more about the human body than anyone else in the entirety of the Land of Fire, so of course she would be able to help you."

"Alright, enough chitchat! Before I train you, I have one more question for you, Naruto. Why do you wish to become stronger?" Tsunade said. "Answer this carefully, because depending on your answer I might decide to stop training you."

After a short moment of silence, Naruto smirked. "Easy. I wish to become strong so that I am able to protect what I love without relying on others." He looked straight into Tsunade's eyes while he said this.

" _This boy... is determined. I can see that much already,"_ she thought. "Very well then," she nodded, "I will train you. But I won't go easy on you!"

"Hah! Just how I like it!"

...

Sasuke had been training with Zabuza for 7 months now, and Mei had decided to give Zabuza and Haku their first mission. She allowed Sasuke and the ANBU member to go with them.

"Remember, all you have to do is check out what's going on and deal with it if you can. If it's too much, return immediately, got it?" Mei ordered. Zabuza nodded with a disinterested look. "You may go now."

Their mission was to check out some disturbances in one of the villages in the Land of Water. It sounded like an easy job, and they were all relaxed as they made their way to the area.

When they got there, they were shocked. They found a huge turtle wreaking havoc, ploughing through the land like it was butter.

"What the fuck is this!?" Zabuza exclaimed.

Sasuke activated his Sharingan. "His chakra – it's incredibly foul! This isn't a normal creature!"

"This must be a Tailed Beast then," Haku said.

"Tailed Beast? Let's get out of here then," Zabuza said. They were too late, however, as the beast had already heard them. It began roaring ferociously before firing a water bullet at them.

"Shit! Dodge!" Zabuza cried, and they all split up in order to dodge it. The bullet continued through the trees, ripping them out of their roots.

The Tailed Beast kept on firing these bullets until the area around them was razed to the ground. It then began gathering a huge amount of chakra around its mouth.

"That... cannot be good. We'd better get the fuck out of here," Zabuza said. They began sprinting off as fast as they could. However, Zabuza realized that there was no point, as they would be caught up by the blast.

" _Hah, am I really going to die here!? What a pathetic end to my life,"_ Zabuza thought.

However, just as the Tailed Beast fired the Tailed Beast Bomb at them, he heard someone shouting, "Tailed Beast Bomb!"

A blast matched the blast produced by the Tailed Beast before overwhelming it. After the smoke cleared, they found that the Tailed Beast had dived into the lake it was standing on and was rapidly escaping.

"What could have made it run away!?" Zabuza gasped.

"That was me," a voice said behind him. When he turned around, he found a young man with brown hair wearing blue robes and holding some sort of straw/bubble maker.

"And who are you?" Zabuza asked.

"I am Utakata, the Six-Tailed Beast Jinchuuriki. What are you doing here, Demon of the Mist?" he asked calmly.

"I was here on a mission to investigate the disturbances. And my name is not Demon of the Mist; I dropped that title when I returned to Kirigakure."

"You returned! I thought you wanted to kill the Mizukage?" Utakata asked.

"No, I wanted to kill the previous Hokage. Right now, Mei Terumi is the new Mizukage."

"Mei Terumi? Wasn't she the prodigy during her days in the ninja academy?"

"That's her. I'm assuming that you were her junior in the academy as well?"

Utakata nodded. At the same time, Sasuke, Haku and the ANBU member arrived.

"Then come with us. Become a ninja once again," Zabuza said.

"I can't. They'll kill me as soon as they see me," Utakata said while backing off.

"No they won't, because you've got us on your side. Besides, Mei is an understanding person. She accepted me despite knowing what I had done."

"... I don't even know you, and you're willing to do this much for me?" Utakata asked, confused.

"Oh no, I'm not doing this for you."

"Then who are you doing it for?"

"I'm doing this for my village. If you return, then we will once again be a mighty force, since right now we're the only country without a Jinchuuriki on our side. So, are you coming?" Zabuza gestured to Utakata to follow them.

After standing in silence for a while and debating with his own Tailed Beast for a while, Utakata nodded.

"Don't make me regret this..."

...

Shino was wandering through a strange forest, surrounded by a swarm of insects that were attracted to his own insects. When he had first entered the forest, he had no idea where he was going to go, but as he walked further and further in, the insects around him seemed to be leading him somewhere. After walking for several hours, he got to a clearing in the forest. He widened his eyes when he saw what was in the middle – in was a huge chakra bug, just like the ones that he had but much bigger (around the size of a lion). He walked up to it cautiously.

" _Is this it? I've been wandering around on my 'training trip' for quite a while. Is this what I'm looking for?"_ he thought.

He tentatively extended his arm towards the bug, but he snapped it back when the bug began to move. The bug opened its huge eyes and looked directly at him.

" ** _What do you seek?"_** __the bug asked in a distorted voice.

Shino gulped. He was actually scared of a bug for once. "I wish to become stronger," he said.

" ** _Prove yourself, and I will give you the strength you are looking for."_**

Suddenly, insects from around the forest began rushing towards Shino. He brought his own hands up, and his own insects began fighting back. Soon, however, they were overwhelmed.

Shino narrowed his eyes before bringing out the red demon bugs that he had saved up. These quickly began to overwhelm the other insects until only Shino's bugs were left.

" ** _It's not over yet."_**

From out of the forest came a large bug. This one wasn't as big as the boss, but it was at least as big as a dog. It rushed to Shino, who was forced to jump back before making his bugs cover his body. Soon enough, he was completely red. When the bug flew at him this time, he threw a punch, which pushed the other insect back slightly. At the same time, the demon bugs released a red poison at the bug, which made its movements slower as it began to succumb to the pain of the poison. He repeated this several times until the bug dropped.

"Was that – huh – good enough?" Shino panted.

" ** _Congratulations, you are my first disciple in several hundred years. I am the Bug summon, Shimushi. From now on, you will be trained in the art of bug war. Do you have any second thoughts?"_**

Shino shook his head. "This is exactly what I was looking for."

" ** _Then let us begin!"_**

 _Yo. Sorry for the chapter drought, I've been really busy. Enjoy. Peace._


	23. Chapter 23

I don't own Naruto.

 **All**

"I can't believe you're already going. We've only trained together for 2 months!" Tsunade said as she prepared to wave goodbye to Naruto and Jiraiya.

"I've already told you, Tsunade-sensei, I've got the chunin exams coming up," Naruto smiled.

"Bah, just forget about those tests. Rank doesn't determine your strength," Tsunade said.

Naruto sighed as if they had already talked about this topic many times. "Tsunade-sensei, I'm going to become Hokage whether you like it or not, so you might as well wish me luck."

"Yeah, whatever. Good luck."

"Don't forget to come back!" Shizune told Naruto, who nodded and smiled.

"Don't worry Shizune-nee-chan, I'll be back!"

As Tsunade and Shizune began walking off, Jiraiya loudly complained, "Oh, so I don't get a goodbye?"

"... Idiot. I know you're going to come back perfectly fine, so there's no need to say goodbye," Tsunade joked, before waving goodbye one final time and walking off.

"... I'm gonna miss them," Naruto said quietly. Jiraiya looked at him.

"Don't worry, Naruto. We'll see them some other time. Besides, you've got more important stuff to think about, don't you?"

"You're right. First things first, I'm gonna wipe the asses of everyone in the chunin exams!"

" _Just wait for me, everyone!"_

...

Meanwhile, Sasuke was preparing to leave Kirigakure as well.

"Are you sure I don't need to come?" Utakata asked Zabuza for the hundredth time. Zabuza rolled his eyes.

"Mei-san gave you a mission, didn't she? Besides, we're strong enough to look after ourselves," he said. This was true because after they had met Utakata, he had been training not just Sasuke, but Zabuza and Haku as well. Even the ANBU member occasionally joined in.

"At any rate, you'd better come back alive," Mei said with a smile.

"That's if they come back at all..." Aoi said gloomily.

"Don't say that!" Chojuro berated him. "Good luck in the exam, Sasuke-kun!" Being of close ages and both being swordsmen, Chojuro and Sasuke had gotten pretty close to each other.

Sasuke smiled gratefully. "Don't worry about me – there's only one person in the exam that I'm wary of. This should be a walk in the park."

"Well, let's get going then," Zabuza said, and the group of four left to Konoha.

" _Just wait for me, Naruto!"_ Sasuke thought, and he grabbed his sword in anticipation.

...

"Hinata, press more! Neji, don't get too cocky! Keep your guard up at all times!" Hiashi had been personally overseeing the training of Hinata and Neji, and he was pleased at the progress they had been making.

"Aaand rest." He brought the training to a stop and motioned for them to come closer. "Now, this doesn't apply to you Neji since you've already passed the chunin exams, so you can go now."

Neji complied with his wishes and left the father and daughter alone.

"Hinata. Now that you are the heir to our clan, you cannot disappoint. The elders will be looking for any chance to prove that you are not worthy of being heir, so you must try your hardest from the get go. Is that clear?"

Hinata nodded solemnly. Months of training with her serious father had made her reflect his personality slightly.

"Let me ask you this, Hinata: what is your target for the chunin exams coming up?" Hiashi asked.

Hinata grinned slightly. "Simple. To become a chunin in such a fashion that the elders will be sure that I should be the next heir and that Naruto will fall in love with me."

Hiashi nodded with satisfaction at her answer. "Well, I wish you luck with your challenges. I am confident that you will prevail."

" _That's right,"_ she thought, _"I will prevail, and Naruto will be mine."_

...

"5 more minutes!" Sakura begged as she sparred with Kakashi late at night.

"You said that 5 minutes ago! ... Fine, let's carry on," Kakashi replied. Honestly, he was surprised at her change in attitude. Ever since Naruto and Sasuke had went on their training trips, Sakura had felt like she was falling very far behind. However, it was only after she had discovered Naruko training deep into the night that she was truly inspired to start training, and Kakashi had been willing to help her.

After they finished sparring, Kakashi turned to Sakura. "Sakura, I have high hopes for you in the chunin exams," he said.

"But... are you sure that I can pass? Am I really strong enough?" she asked nervously.

Kakashi smiled. "Sakura. I don't know about the others, but I do know that you've trained incredibly hard. If anything, you deserve to succeed in the chunin exams."

Sakura nodded before walking back home. "Thanks for everything, Kakashi-sensei!"

Just before she left the training grounds, she had one more thought plague her mind: _"Sasuke-kun... Naruto... I will catch up to you, just you wait for me!"_

...

Naruko collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. She was too tired to keep her Sharingan eyes open, so the three tomoe swirled before disappearing. Sweat droplets dripped off her face as she steadied herself before getting back up and looking at the tree in front of her. The tree had lost almost all of the bark at the front due to her constantly striking it, and it was covered in her blood as the skin on her fists had ripped while she was punching it. She tensed her fist, but she had long lost her sense of touch on the outside of her hands.

" _Naruto..."_ she thought.

She picked up a water bottle off the round and began drinking and washing her hands, before picking up her red jacket and walking back home.

" _Naruto..."_

As she lay on her bed, waiting for sleep to overtake her, she was constantly replaying every fight she had ever been in inside her head in order to spot any mistakes in her fighting technique. She couldn't stop gripping her water bottle with her numb hand.

" _Naruto..."_

Finally, as she felt her eyes droop and a wave of exhaustion passed over her, she let go of the bottle and it clattered onto the ground. Just before she passed out, she let one more thought go through her head: _"Naruto... I_ will _make you notice me..."_

...

Shino couldn't help opening one eye and looking at his reflection in the water underneath him, but that was all it took to beak his concentration. However, he just managed to glimpse some strange black marks which had appeared on his face before they vanished quickly.

" _ **You broke your concentration. Start again!"**_

Shino nodded and closed his eyes. Just before he removed all thoughts from his head, one last thought flashed through his mind: _"Naruto... Hinata... hurry up already..."_

...

"So where's the exam being held?" Naruto asked.

Jiraiya grinned. "Kumogakure, the village with hot, dangerous girls carrying swords. We'll be there in less than a month."

" _That's right. Just wait for me, everyone!"_

 _Yo._

 _Peace._


	24. Chapter 24

I don't own Naruto.

 **Hardships**

"Whoa..." Naruto was amazed. Since he had never been outside The Land of Fire he didn't know what to expect from Kumogakure, but what he saw greatly impressed him.

Kumogakure was essentially loads of buildings built on mountains. Many of the buildings were hanging of the edges of the mountains with nothing underneath them. The buildings were so high up that clouds would float in between them and he would get vertigo just by looking down. Naruto understood why the village was called the village hidden in the clouds. The huge mountains were connected by flying bridges, meaning that there was little of the village on the actual ground.

"I know. I said the same thing when I first came here," Jiraiya said. "However, you can admire the view later. For now, let's get to the hotel where Konoha ninja are staying."

"Yeah, I've got that meeting for all Konoha participants to attend to," Naruto remembered.

They had to cross several bridges to get to the hotel, and Naruto couldn't help increasing his pace when they walked over the flying bridges. When they got there, Jiraiya turned to Naruto.

"You go inside and get to the meeting. I'm going to walk around the village," he said with a slightly perverted smile before walking off. Naruto rolled his eyes and entered. After asking for directions from the receptionist, he made his way to a room on the second floor. When he entered, he found a large number on ninja talking to each other in a large room. He looked around and saw his friends talking to each other so he made his way to them.

"Hey guys," he said, and they turned to him.

"Naruto! How are you?" Naruko asked.

"I'm good, how are you guys?" he said.

"How was the training trip?" Hinata asked.

He shrugged. "On the one hand, I got to visit loads of cool places and train with some really strong ninja. On the other hand, I had to spend a year with Jiraiya..." Several of them smiled at this.

"You know Sasuke and Shino went on training trips as well?" Choji informed him. "But Shino's not back yet."

Naruto looked at Sasuke, and noticed that he was carrying a sword on his back. He raised his eyebrows. "Who did you go with?"

Sasuke smirked. "You'd never believe me. Have you heard of The Demon of the Mist, Zabuza?"

"Is he one of Kirigakure's Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke nodded. "I went with him and his aide, Haku, to Kirigakure and back." Naruto whistled in appreciation. "I also trained with a Jinchuuriki," he said, and Naruto whistled again.

Naruto turned to the others. "What about you lot? Have you guys been training as well? After all, I wouldn't want to leave you guys in the dust..." he said with a challenging smile. That got their spirits as they all began swearing that they would show Naruto how strong they had become.

Soon, The Hokage walked in, followed by several jonin. After ordering everyone to sit down, he began his short speech.

"I wish to begin by congratulating you – you are among the few genin who will be able to become chunin. Being a chunin requires fighting skills as well as tactical thinking, and I expect to see both displayed from you youngsters. However, even if you don't become a chunin, I still expect the utmost behaviour from each and every one of you. You are currently representing the entirety of Konoha, so you must act as if you bear that responsibility. Finally, I wish you good luck, and may you impress the judges enough to earn a promotion. That is all!" The Hokage then walked out, leaving the jonin to take their respective teams. Kakashi, Guy, Kurenai and Asuma approached the remainder of the Konoha 12.

"Since some of the Konoha 12 have already become chunin, we're going to have to change around the teams," Kakashi began. "Team 7 is the same, so you can come with me like usual." Sasuke, Sakura and Naruko left with Kakashi.

"This is what we've decided: Team 10 will consist of Ino, Choji and Tenten, led by Asuma, and Team 8 will consist of Naruto, Hinata and Lee, led by Guy," Kurenai said.

"What about you, Kurenai-sensei?" Hinata asked.

Kurenai smiled. "For now I'll return to being a normal jonin."

As Naruto was walking out of the room with his new team, he caught sight of Team Dosu, and waved with a smile. Kin and Zaku waved back with equally large smiles, and Dosu nodded towards him.

"Where are we going now, Guy-sensei?" Lee asked.

"I'll show you your rooms that you'll be staying in, and then we're going to have a team sparring match so that I can see how much you've grown," Guy said.

The rest of the day passed quickly, finished off with some light training in which Naruto didn't display his full strength.

The next day the chunin exams began, and, just like in the previous chunin exam, they began with a paper test. It was an incredibly hard test with 20 questions, and Naruto only managed to answer 2. He discreetly poured chakra into his eyes and looked at Sakura ahead (since she was very clever), but he saw that even she was struggling. Everyone he could see was struggling as well.

" _Why is it so hard!?"_

After 50 minutes had passed, they were told to stop by the proctor of the exam, a Kumogakure jonin with dark skin, long, black hair and thick sunglasses. He then proceeded to split each team up and send one member of each team into one of three rooms. Naruto was told to go into the second room, and soon the room was packed with genin. After a while, another proctor walked into the room and ordered them to be quiet.

"The test was designed to be too hard for any of you to finish on purpose," he said, "but the test is not over yet. I will give you all a chance to obtain all of the answers and therefore be guaranteed success."

"What's the catch?" a genin asked.

The proctor smiled wickedly. "The catch is that you have to choose one of your teammates to fail. If one of your teammates gets picked by the other two, they will fail. However, if you all vote differently, you will all fail."

The genin were shocked into silence.

"Come on, we don't have all day!" the proctor hurried them.

Soon, participants began queuing up to tell the proctor which teammate they wanted to fail. Naruto shook his head in disgust.

" _If there's one thing I learned from the academy, it's that you never abandon a comrade. How can these people call themselves ninja if they don't know something that basic!?"_

After no one else was approaching the proctor, he got up and looked at them all with a serious face. "Whoever voted for one of their teammates to fail has failed their entire team. If you didn't vote for any of your teammates to fail, regardless of your test score, you have passed."

The genin began shouting in outrage. "How could you lie to us!?"

"Silence!" the proctor shouted, and they all went silent. "It is common knowledge that you should never abandon your comrades. That is the true ninja way. Those of you who wished for their teammates to fail, I'm ashamed that you call yourselves ninja with that attitude."

The genin all looked down in shame.

"Maybe when you come back you'll have learned better. Well, for now, those who passed make your way to the main room again." The proctor walked out, and those who passed followed him into the main room. When he walked in, Naruto saw that the number of contestants had dropped severely – there were less than half the teams that there was at the beginning. He saw his team waiting for him and sighed in relief and making his way to them. They talked for a bit before a new proctor walked in.

When he saw her, Naruto almost gasped. She was quite tall, with pale skin which contrasted with her grey clothes, and a curvaceous figure which was only further complimented by her tight clothes. Her blonde hair was cut in a bob style and her clear, blue eyes reflected the cold look she had on her face as she walked in. Naruto saw the tanto on her back and gasped as he remembered what Jiraiya had said about Kumogakure: _"Kumogakure, the village with hot, dangerous girls carrying swords."_

" _Jiraiya was right. She looks dangerous with that sword, and she's_ definitely _hot."_

" **Oh, what's this? Don't you already have enough girl problems?"**

" _Damnit, you're right! But she's too hot!"_

Meanwhile, Hinata had noticed Naruto's change in expression when the proctor had walked in and was becoming very jealous as she stared at Naruto angrily. Naruto didn't notice her.

"I am Samui, and I will be your proctor for the second stage of the exams," the blonde proctor said. "The second stage will be held on Genbu, a huge, live turtle otherwise known as The Island Turtle. You need not worry – Genbu is peaceful and will allow the test to continue on his back. For the second stage, each team will be given either a Heaven Scroll or an Earth Scroll, and you must obtain both scrolls before you can make your way to the tower in the centre of the forest on Genbu. Once you get to the tower you will be allowed to open the scrolls, but if you open them before you will be immediately disqualified."

"So it's the same thing as what we did in The Forest of Death then," Naruto muttered.

Samui then proceeded to tell them about the forms they needed to sign in case they die, and soon they began making their way to Genbu. It took them several hours to reach it, but once they got there they were released into the forest on top of Genbu without even getting rest. Naruto turned to his teammates.

"So, what's the plan?" he asked them while holding the Heaven Scroll that they had received.

"How about we circle the forest and try to find other groups?" Lee suggested.

Hinata shook her head. "That would take too long. It would be better if we made our way to the centre, and then from there I can use my Byakugan to look for opponents." The other two nodded, so they began making their way to the centre.

While they were running, Naruto said to Hinata, "What happened to your Tenseigan? Don't you still have it?"

Hinata shook her head. "For some reason it just left me a few weeks after I had begun to use it."

"That's strange. Do you want some more Otsutsuki DNA so that you can reawaken the Tenseigan?" Naruto offered.

She shook her head again. "If I'm going to pass this test, I want to pass it with my own strength. Thanks for the offer, but I've got my own strength to rely on as well."

Naruto nodded and carried on running. He was surprised at how Hinata's personality had changed again. When he had left her to go on the training trip, she had been loud, brash and harsh – a female version of how he used to be, in a way. Now, she seemed more mature, more serious.

" **It's not just her. You're changing as well, you know."**

" _I guess so."_

Suddenly, Lee stopped and held his hand up. Naruto and Hinata stopped before going to him.

"What's up?" Naruto asked. Lee pointed at the ground (they had been running on the trees), and Naruto saw a large group of rabid apes who were jumping around and making a lot of noise.

"We can't get past them discreetly, so we'll have to fight," Hinata said, and the other two nodded.

"I'll get close and see what abilities they have first," Naruto said before rushing forwards.

He couldn't help grinning. This was his first real fight in ages, and his heart was pumping strongly in anticipation. "Accel!" he cried, and he put on a burst of speed, punching the first on its jaw. It went flying back, hitting two others before crashing into a tree.

"Three down, about thirty to go!"

The nearest ape to him rushed to him and swiped with long claws at his head. He easily ducked under the swing and punched it in the stomach. "Shock Fist!" The ape was blown back by an incredibly strong shock wave. Another ape had snuck behind him and tried to cut his back, but he twisted out of the way quickly and launched a roundhouse kick, almost separating the ape's head from its shoulders. "Impulse!" At the same time he sent a blast of electricity through his legs, throwing the ape back into another ape.

" _Whoa, he's gotten way faster than he was before he left!"_ Hinata thought.

Naruto looked up at the other two, who had impressed looks as they stared down at the damage. "They only rely on hand-to-hand combat, so come down here!" he called up, and the other two nodded. With all three of them fighting, they cleared the apes in a few seconds and carried on to the centre.

When they got there, Hinata activated her Byakugan and began looking around, before pointing in a direction. "There's a team that way," she said, so they rushed there. When they got there, they found a group that they didn't know from Sunagakure.

"Sorry about this!" Lee shouted, before rushing forwards to the first one. Lee threw a sharp punch at her head, but she managed to duck and punch Lee's stomach, making Lee stumble back in surprise.

" _Wait, are these guys actually strong?"_

Lee smiled widely. "I have found a rival! Excellent!"He rushed forwards again and kicked at her stomach, but she deflected the kick upwards and threw a right hook. This time, though, Lee was taking her seriously, so he ducked before kicking her shins, making her fall before bringing his knee into her face.

Seeing this, one of her teammates began running to her to help her, but Naruto brought his hands up. "Impulse!" The lightning arc paralyzed him as Hinata ran to the third team member and engaged him in combat, quickly hitting several of his pressure points and taking him out of the action. Naruto punched his opponent several times in the stomach, also knocking him out. The scroll fell out of his pocket when he dropped to the ground, so Naruto picked it up. It was an Earth Scroll, meaning they could go back to the tower.

"Guys, we can go back now," he said, so they made their way to the tower.

" _That team was weak; it was only the girl that was decent..."_

When they got to the tower they opened the scrolls and a proctor was summoned. He told them that they had passed and allowed them into the building, telling them that they could rest for several days since they were one of the first teams to arrive.

" _Who arrived first then, I wonder...?"_

Naruto began looking around to find the team that had beat them and soon found a girl training in one of the spare training rooms. When she heard him come in she turned, and Naruto almost gasped a second time that day.

She had a fierce look, as if she was constantly looking for a challenge. Her short, spiky hair and obsidian eyes made her skin seem paler than it actually was. She wore a brown flak jacket over a one-sleeved red shirt and a red skirt which covered only one leg. She wore mesh leggings and ninja boots on her legs.

She approached Naruto the same way a lion approaches its prey. "Who are you and what do you want?" she almost barked out.

Naruto almost gulped. "I'm Naruto from Konoha. I just wanted to see who managed to finish before us."

The girl raised her eyebrows. "If you finished this quickly then you must be decent. Very well then, I will tell you my name. I am Kurotsuchi, a ninja from Iwagakure."

 _Yo. Don't complain about how Kurotsuchi wouldn't still be a genin – my story is special like that._

 _PLEASE keep giving me ideas for powers. I haven't had any for so long!_

 _Peace._


End file.
